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Contemporary film comedies seem to be stuck in a rut. While there have been some standout offerings thanks mostly to Judd Apatow and his vast network of filmmaking collaborators, most are just trying to ape the same gross-out nostalgic formula. So it’s somewhat refreshing that Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist comes along attempting to return to a more innocent brand of teenage comedy – the type of romantic teen films John Hughes used to make. Despite the presence of Michael Cera (Superbad) as one of the leads, Nick and Norah is as far removed from recent Apatow output as you can get. It strives to be something John Cusack might have attached himself to early in his career or perhaps as a star vehicle for Molly Ringwald. That being said, the movie doesn’t quite match the success of classic romantic comedies like Say Anything or Sixteen Candles, but it’s a harmless enough diversion and a valentine to the film genre to which it pays homage.

The film opens with Nick (Michael Cera) pining away for his ex-girlfriend, Tris (Alexis Dziena), who recently dumped him. A musician and diehard music fan, Nick keeps burning CD song mixes with elaborate cover artwork that he sends to Tris in the hopes of rekindling their relationship. After sending her Volume 12 of his ongoing series, he promises it will be the last. Meanwhile, the self-absorbed Tris brushes off his affections and makes fun of him with two indifferent schoolmates – Caroline (Ari Graynor) and Norah (Kat Dennings). Norah has been secretly intercepting Nick’s CDs from the trash and is impressed with his song selections, even if Tris doesn’t appreciate his effort. Although Norah has yet to meet Nick, they at least seem to share the same passion for music. That night, Caroline convinces Norah to go to a local club to see a band called The Jerk-Offs, in which Nick is the silent and brooding bass player. Caroline senses Norah has a crush on him, but Norah dismisses the notion. When Nick notices Tris in the club and starts staring at her from the stage, Norah thinks he’s looking at her. The mistaken identity games continue when Norah later approaches Nick to ask that he pretend to be her boyfriend just to make Tris think she’s not there “alone.”

It doesn’t take long for Norah to discover that the bass player she’s been ogling and now the guy she’s awkwardly asked to pretend to be her boyfriend is none other than Nick of the endless CD mixes – and the guy that’s still obviously hung up on Tris. Thanks to a serious of sitcom-worthy circumstances, Nick and Norah will soon end up sharing a ride home that night, while the amusingly drunk Caroline is taken home by Nick’s gay bandmates in their van. (Norah consents that Caroline will be safe traveling home with gay men.) It’s here that the film sort of becomes a cross between When Harry Met Sally and Martin Scorsese’s underrated After Hours, with the initially at-odds couple slowly getting to know each other through a series of wild encounters in New York City. Most of their overnight escapades are driven by an insane desire to find the location of a special one-night-only performance by Where’s Fluffy? – an eclectic band they both claim to be their favorite. Getting the wildly incoherent and inebriated Caroline home also becomes a lot more challenging than Nick’s bandmates, Thom (Aaron Yoo) and Dev (Rafi Gavron), originally thought and Nick and Norah soon find themselves not only asking “Where’s Fluffy?” but also “Where’s Caroline?”

Meanwhile, Tris keeps running into Nick and Norah at various venues and starts to realize that the two are getting more than a little chummy … which makes her both envious and jealous at having let Nick go. Knowing that Nick wants her back and being selfish enough to ruin the good thing he obviously has going with Norah, Tris first sets out to spread some lies about Norah and then actively tries to seduce Nick at one point – which ends up eventually backfiring on her. It’s a good lesson for Nick, who is able to finally break free from Tris’ spell and appreciate his burgeoning relationship with Norah. Norah also has to learn to cut her ties to an on-again, off-again relationship she’s had with a guy who’s only using her because of her connections to the music business. Norah’s dad, as Nick will soon marvel to find out, owns the famous Electric Lady Studios in New York – a mecca for music lovers that was built by Jimi Hendrix and has hosted countless classic recording sessions by the likes of The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and John Lennon over the years. Norah eventually takes Nick on a late-night tour of the studio, which only endears her to him even more.

This being a teen romantic comedy, you can see the only plausible ending coming a mile away, but it’s still fun to take the ride just the same. It’s great to watch the increasingly annoying Tris finally get her comeuppance once Nick realizes what a phony she is and it’s also sweet to see how kindred spirits like Nick and Norah gradually fall in love. My one minor quibble would be that the two lead characters are decidedly the most serious individuals in the entire film and, as such, they don’t provide much in terms of comedic value. While relative newcomer Kat Dennings is refreshingly charming and compelling, I’m also growing a little tired of Michael Cera’s deadpan “I’m so not going to crack a smile” shtick. He’s likable enough, but I fear he may be typecasting himself as the hip young guy who remains condescendingly aloof from everyone around him. The real breakout star performance here arrives courtesy of Ari Graynor, who spends almost the entire running time of the film stumbling from one place to another in a drunken stupor. She gets all of the movie’s genuine big laughs and manages to remain adorable even when slumped in a raunchy bathroom stall barfing her guts out. She handily steals the movie out from under Cera and Dennings from the get-go.

The other star of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is the film’s smart collection of contemporary rock and pop songs as evidenced in Nick’s CD mixes and the various bands the couple goes to see. Again, taking a cue from John Hughes’ playbook, director Peter Sollett (Raising Victor Vargas) manages to weave some interesting music from the likes of Bishop Allen, Vampire Weekend and Shout Out Louds into the fabric of the film itself and finds songs that not only fit Nick and Norah’s unique tastes, but also support the drama itself. A good soundtrack like this can elevate a routine romantic comedy into something a bit more special and personal and it also encourages viewers to seek out more music from the various bands featured. Admittedly, not being a fan of any of these bands before, I now feel compelled to check out some of their other work. The one disappointment after a 90-minute buildup and incessant talk about the fictitious Where’s Fluffy? was how the group’s actual appearance during a rooftop concert at the end is reduced to a couple of flash-cuts and mere seconds of a few opening chords. But by then, Nick and Norah’s own obsessions over the band have, understandably, switched to each other – and that’s music to everyone’s ears.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s original 1.85:1 aspect ratio is presented in a good high-definition transfer compressed with the AVC video CODEC. While the transfer itself is sharp and detailed, the source film is decidedly dark and desaturated by design, and the result looks a bit grainy and dark at times. Color balance, such as it is, remained solid and there were no signs of compression artifacts, specks or blemishes. Details such as the intricate patterns on the throw rugs at Electric Lady Studios and the vinyl interior of Nick’s notorious Yugo all looked clean and sharp and black levels were all deep, dark and inky. Flesh tones also looked natural and nicely-rendered, although they tended to skew a big red/orange in some scenes. Overall, a good if not eye-popping video presentation.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

Sadly, for a movie where music is one of the main characters, the lossless English TrueHD 5.1 track here is a bit disappointing. Although it’s strong and aggressive during the early concert performance by The Jerk-Offs, it recedes a little too much into the background during the remainder of the film save for a couple of ambient club performances. The track sounds a bit anemic in spots and there isn’t much LFE or bass content to kick the subwoofer into action. While content is provided to all six channels, I kept wanting to hear a stronger and more aggressive surround presence instead of what ultimately becomes a dialogue-heavy, center-channel experience. Even the original score courtesy of Mark Mothersbaugh, formerly of the band Devo, seems muted and sedate by comparison. Overall, a lackluster and disappointing audio presentation.

The optional subtitles are in English SDH, English, Spanish and French.

The Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

As if to compensate for the shortcomings of the video and audio presentations, the BD is packed with plenty of interesting and unique bonus material beginning with a feature-length running audio commentary track with director Peter Sollett, novel writers Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, and screenwriter Lorene Scafaria. This is a breezy and informative track that greatly benefits from the participation of Cohn and Levithan, who discuss the various changes made from their source novel for the final film. Even more entertaining and amusing is the HD-exclusive Telestrator commentary track with director Peter Sollett and actors Michael Cera, Kat Dennings and Ari Graynor. This feature, which requires a Profile 1.1 player, allows each commentator to draw and highlight things on the screen, much like how sportscasters do during football games. The cast members and director clearly have fun here pointing out mistakes and things like frequent fashion faux pas while talking about the experience of making the film. It’s a handy tool that I’d like to see applied to a more serious film examination in the future – say, to point out Hitchcock’s use of angles and mirrors in Psycho, for instance.

Keeping with the Profile 1.1 HD-exclusive bonus content, there’s also something called a Cinechat feature that allows you to log on via an Internet connection and chat with up to four friends while watching the movie. You pick an avatar of one of the film’s characters and then start blogging away. Another unique offering is Nick and Norah’s Interactive Playlist that, when activated, displays a small iPod-like icon at the bottom of the screen with such information as song title and artist along with a running text trivia track about the movie.

Next is a collection of deleted and alternate scenes that includes: Hell No, Tal Remembers the Jerk Offs, Attack of the Homeless, Caroline in the Tree, Vomit Comet, CD Guy and Caroline Chant, CD Kid, Tranny Tris and Norah and Jesus. As with the movie itself, most of these are expendable save for the additional moments with Caroline which are always worth another look. There’s also a collection of outtakes (4:12) that are often more amusing than the material in the finished film; something called A Nick and Norah Puppet Show by Kat Dennings (5:12) in which the actress literally acts out a condensed version of the movie using small paper cut-outs of each character; the self-explanatory Ari Graynor’s Video Diary: A Look Behind-the-Scenes (3:56) in which the amusing actress takes her camera and roams around the set interviewing her fellow cast mates and crew members.

The supplementary material continues with two animated storyboard sequences for both the Opening Sequence and the scene where Nick and Norah Meet. Interesting but far from enlightening. Next is an unscripted Faux Interview with Michael Cera, Kat Dennings and Eddie Kaye Thomas (2:50) in which the two leads are interviewed by the actor who appears in a cameo as a cigarette-smoking Jesus here but is best known as Finch in the American Pie films. Thomas tries to needle Dennings about Cera being a bigger star, but it doesn’t work and doesn’t come across as all that funny either. There’s also a photo gallery aptly titled Peter Sollett’s Photo Album that presents stills that can be advanced one-by-one or played in a slideshow, and a promotional music video for Bishop Allen’s song “Middle Management” (2:52), which is presented in an abbreviated form within the film proper.

The BD also includes a digital copy DVD that allows you to transfer the movie onto portable media devices via a Windows-based PC or Apple’s video iPod, along with the trailers for Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway; Passengers; Seven Pounds; The House Bunny; Across the Universe; 21 and The Other Boleyn Girl, along with the standard Sony BD promo.

The 89-minute film is divided into sixteen chapters.

Final Thoughts

Derivative but ultimately harmless and nostalgic, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is a throwback to some of the more innocent and teen-friendly romantic comedies of the 1980s. Light and breezy with the affable Michael Cera and the irresistible Kat Dennings in the leads, the film is greatly aided by the presence of Ari Graynor in a scene-stealing comedic performance. Despite a lackluster video presentation and a somewhat disappointing audio presentation, the ample offering of unique bonus material and the movie itself warrant a marginal recommendation.

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