Nick And Nora
WORDS: Yasmin Begum (Sprout editorial Group)
Nick And Nora's Infinite Playlist (12A, 90mins) is the latest in a series of indie films shown in large multiplexes as opposed to your local indie cinema, aimed at alt-teens who wear battered converse, obscure band shirts and prefer Juno to Mean Girls.
Directed by Peter Sollet (kudos for Raising Victor Vargas), it was originally a book by Rachel Cohn, a teenage fiction writer.
It tracks lead man Nick (Michael Cera) - bassist for alternative queer-core rock group The Jerk Offs - who's just fallen out of a six-month relationship with vindictive ex-girlfriend Tris (Alexis Dziena) for whom he makes mix CDs in a feeble hope of winning her back.
Nora (Kat Dennings) attends the same school as Tris and gets hold of all seven of said CDs and falls in love with Nick's music taste.
They end up meeting at a gig, and after an impropmtu kiss go on a wild goose chase through the various boroughs of NYC after her drunk best friend (played a hiliarious Ari Gaynor) whilst looking for the club where their favourite band, Where's Fluffy? are playing a secret guerilla gig.
Despite its tweeness and interesting cinematography of alternative clubs in New York, NANIP feels both over-done and lukewarm. It's not terrible, but if you didn't see it, you wouldn't really be missing anything.
The soundtrack features Vampire Weekend and Canadian indie-rockers We Are Scientists, but that's probably the only good thing about this film.
Other compensation comes via Dennings and Cera for their wry, sarcastic and witty characters, but ultimately you should save your money and buy the book.
