Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

This is another of those movies for which I am definitely not the target audience. But you know me. I find something to like in most movies. This one follows a group of teenagers running around New York City one night searching for a rumored after-hours concert by their favorite rock band. Along the way, various of them fall in love, break up, and have adventures. It’s occasionally cute and sweet, occasionally funny, and occasionally gross.

All the way through it, though, I kept thinking, “I’ve seen this movie before.” Finally I figured out why I felt that way. With its set-up – all the action taking place in one night, the stories of the different characters weaving in and out of each other, the constant music and the way the music motivates much of the action – well, this is just an updated version of AMERICAN GRAFFITI, with about a tenth of the depth and meaning of that earlier film.

Not to be too harsh about NICK AND NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST, though. It’s an entertaining film, the cast is appealing, the music is great (hey, I like a lot of new music), and no doubt it resonates much more strongly with today’s kids, just the way AMERICAN GRAFFITI did with me.

5 comments:

RAM said...
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Anonymous said...

Hey James you might want to use the the word verification, even though this is the first piece of spam to hit your site.

James Reasoner said...

Yeah, it can't hurt anything, and most people are used to it by now. Besides, some of those randomly-generated words are cool.

pattinase (abbott) said...

We just watched it tonight. I liked it because I like Michael Cera. And I liked certain unpredictable things in it. My husband wandered off pretty early though.

James Reasoner said...

Yeah, I like Michael Cera, too. He's an interesting actor.