Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008)

Director:

Peter Sollett

Writers (WGA):

Lorene Scafaria (screenplay)
Rachel Cohn (novel) ...

Release Date:

3 October 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Music | Romance

Plot:

High school student Nick O'Leary, member of the Queercore band The Jerk Offs, meets college-bound Norah Silverberg and she asks him to be her boyfriend for five minutes.

Plot Keywords:

Night | Band | Ex Girlfriend | Search | Love

Awards:

9 nominations

Cast

Michael Cera	...	Nick
Kat Dennings	...	Norah
Aaron Yoo	...	Thom
Rafi Gavron	...	Dev
Ari Graynor	...	Caroline
Alexis Dziena	...	Tris
Jonathan B. Wright	...	Beefy Guy (Lethario) (as Jonathan Bradford Wright)
Zachary Booth	...	Gary
Jay Baruchel	...	Tal
Justin Rice	...	Bishop Allen
Christian Rudder	...	Bishop Allen
Giorgio Angelini	...	Bishop Allen
Darbie Nowatka	...	Bishop Allen
Cully Symington	...	Bishop Allen
Jeremy Haines	...	Randy (Are You Randy)

Also Known As:

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (Australia)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material including teen drinking, sexuality, language and crude behavior.

Runtime:

Canada:90 min (Toronto International Film Festival) | USA:90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Australia:M | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | USA:PG-13 (certificate #44261) | Singapore:NC-16 | Ireland:15A | UK:12A | South Korea:15 | Finland:K-11 | Argentina:13 | Iceland:L | Mexico:B | Netherlands:12 | Italy:T

Filming Locations:

Katz's Delicatessen - 205 East Houston Street, East Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Depth of Field

Trivia:

Ari Graynor (Caroline) improvised her whole speech at the Port Authority when Kevin Corrigan decided he wouldn't say a word during his scene.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Nick and Norah are in Electric Lady Studios and Norah receives a text from Caroline that reads "Foumd Flufdy" the date for the text says "Apr 20 2008." April 20, 2008 was a Sunday, and in the beginning of the film while Caroline and Norah are in school, Caroline says to Norah that it is Friday. Since they were out in NYC throughout Friday night into Saturday morning, it should have been April 19, 2008, but it could not have been the 20th.

Quotes:

Thom: Would someone mind telling me where we're going?
Norah: You know how some people like to eat at the same places?
Nick: Yeah.
Norah: Well Caroline likes to barf in the same places.

Movie Connections:

References Gojira (1954)

Soundtrack:

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me (Io Che Non Vivo Senza Te)

It's about the atmosphere...

All right. Listen up out there. You could say this is Juno without the baby...or almost as useless and watered down as a straight to DVD movie...but you would be missing the point--not that every movie has to have a point.

N&N is not trying to sell something or be something--it's not even trying to be great...because most love stories that try to be great fail. When you see N&N (and if you're in the mood for a lighthearted enjoyable movie, you should), don't go with an expectation of grandeur or even for the entire thing to be great. Alexis Diziena is as useless in this film as she is anorexic and whorish--her part is almost explicitly sexual. And there are so many subplots that their lives appear at times to be exaggerated. What matters almost seems to be camouflaged by what should be secondary.

The movie succeeds in a number of understated ways, though. Ari Graynor's part is by far the funniest character of the bunch and Ari plays the part extremely well. The gay band Michael Cera is a member of adds a quirky afterthought to his character's back story. And what's most important--the characters Nick and Norah act like slightly more interesting versions of normal people. They have their flaws and their disagreements but they're capable of finding the beauty in each other and their story along the way.

Movies should be about the creation and expansion of a spark of magic--not about giving you exactly what you expect or want. The perfection of the movie lives in its imperfections. The love is in the relationships that are real and what is fake gets left behind in a sketchy area near 10th street (that's not a spoiler). It amplifies grace with its soundtrack and hope with its random culmination of peculiar events over a single-night.

So just let the infinite playlist play and enjoy it already.