'Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist 2008'

The Story
The plot's pretty straightforward and simple. Nick (Michael Cera) just got dumped by his girlfriend, has to perform with his band (made up of all gay guys except for Nick), and wants desperately to find the secret location of a concert being held by his favorite band. Norah (Kat Dennings) is busy watching out for her incredibly drunk and out-of-control friend while trying to enjoy Nick's band. Nick's ex shows up, puts Norah on the spot, and Norah tries to convince her she's now dating Nick, which of course makes the ex – who believes she's the hottest thing on two legs – super jealous.

Things turn weird when Norah's drunken friend wanders off and Nick, his band, and Norah have to spend the night searching for her instead of the secret concert. As Nick and Norah spend more time in each other's company, romantic feelings begin to surface.

The Cast

Kat Dennings and Michael Cera have similar acting styles. Neither appear to be doing any acting; they seem to just be doing what comes naturally. Both take a very genuine, very authentic approach to the way they handle their characters.


Dennings isn't cut from any cookie cutter actress mold. There's something refreshingly different that sets Dennings apart from the horde of young actresses her age, some indefinable quality that makes it easy to connect to whatever character she's playing. And if Cera's doing here what he does in every other feature film (which is basically the same as what he did in the too-soon-cancelled TV series Arrested Development), that's just fine by me. So what if he hasn't exactly stretched himself yet? I like his geeky, non-threatening, sympathetic characters. Cera's found his niche and he's capitalizing on it while he can. Maybe one of these days he'll play a serial killer or used car salesman, but for now he's got a lock on the patient, suffering boyfriend parts.
Norah's best friend is played by Ari Graynor, an actress I was unfamiliar with but who does a fantastic job at playing drunk. Where's she been hiding? Aaron Yoo and Rafi Gavron play Nick's band mates and do great at the supportive buddy parts. There's also a batch of cameos by familiar faces who contribute some funny lines in super brief bits.