Why you can trust 12DOVE Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.
Zack and Miri make porn. Nick and Norah - younger, more indie - make sweet music. It’s a cutesy, Superbad-eyed view of being a late teen, where falling for someone before legal drinking age is merely awkward, VD a giggle rather than a scratch.
Aiming for the heart more than laughs, Peter Sollett’s Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist plays a decent, if predictable tune - far more MOR than its cutting edge soundtrack would suggest.
That playlist then, so good they hark about it in the title. Vampire Weekend and Band Of Horses, to name but two, pump from the film’s stereo as Nick (Michael Cera) and Norah (Kat Dennings) embark on a night-long New York search to find a secret gig. They’re meant to be, but first Nick needs closure over his bitch ex Tris (Alexis Dziena).
The leads are flawless. Cera may always play the same rabbit in the headlights, but it’s a role uniquely his own. Dennings meanwhile is cool and courteous. They’re a lovely couple, destined to win MTV’s Best Kiss award.
But Nick & Norah’s is too flimsy, too plodding to wholly resonate. With so many NME-pleasing tunes to cram in, the pacing often feels like an album with moving-picture accompaniment, grossout toilet scenes and tranny discos filler messing with the naturalism of the leads’ blossoming love.
Sollett - who directed the similarly themed Raising Victor Vargas - knows how to ride a rite of passage. It’s just this time he relies on his stars and soundtrack, not story, for propulsion. Lucky they’re both cranked up to 11.
Jonathan Dean
Final Fantasy 14 is coming to mobile so sprouts can experience the "grandeur of the original's story and combat," and card game sickos like me have another way to play Triple Triad
As Remedy nearly breaks even with Alan Wake 2 sales, Sam Lake tells investors "we strive to create commercial hits" but "we must never lose" the studio's special sauce
DC says Absolute Batman is already the best-selling comic of 2024
