Cute, naturally flavored teen comedy is somewhat of a relief

Rating: 6/10 (27 June 2009)

Every so often it's nice to take in a breath of fresh air from today's over-sexed teen comedies. "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" doesn't exactly absolve itself here, but it bravely doesn't lean on sex like a comedic crutch either. It's a sweet and sometimes even naive teen romance -- not terribly clichéd, but not terribly funny either. "Nick and Norah" remains steadfast in the belief that movies more closely resembling reality are inherently better and it makes an okay case for it.
The movie takes place all in one night as music-loving rich teenagers from suburban New Jersey head into Manhattan because some apparently amazing band that never reveals the whereabouts of their concerts is said to be performing sometime that night. Nick (Michael Cera) is the recently dumped member of a band composed of himself and three gay friends who play a gig early that night, when he meets Norah (Kat Dennings "40-Year-Old Virgin") the be yourself type girl that tells it like it is and loves music for music's sake. Both pretend to be dating for split second to upset Tris (Alexis Dziena), Nick's manipulative ex and Norah's pushy friend. From the get-go we know Nick and Norah will end up together for real; the only question is how long will they have to fend off annoying supporting cast members before it happens?
Cera and Dennings are good. Much to my surprise, Cera's restrained/quiet humor style that made him the ultimate lovable loser character in "Superbad" and "Juno" holds off from getting stale at least one more film, perhaps because "Nick and Norah" relies more on natural teenage awkwardness for laughs than the contrived dialogue kind. Dennings is the film's real talent. We're more in touch with what her character is feeling and going through than any other. Unfortunately, as unfair as it both sounds and is, her rebellious goth look will probably always limit her career.
The only other likable supporting roles in the film are Cera's gay van-cruising buddies. Major kudos to the acting and direction here -- never before has a movie handled gay characters so normally, as sad as that sounds. The gay characters are sweet and not horrifically over- stereotyped like nearly every comedy. In other words, they come off as characters who happen to be gay, not "let's put gay characters into this story." They're the most sincere and likable roles in the film. The cameos in the movie are also first rate, from John Cho to Andy Samberg.
Other roles such as Norah's drunk stereotype friend Caroline (Ari Graynor) who throws up a lot and has the movie's worst recurring gag with her Violet Beauregarde chewing gum habit, are petty annoyances to the natural chemistry of Cera and Dennings. The ex-girlfriend is another one of those parts, but at least we're supposed to hate her.
"Nick and Norah" is one of those movies that will never amount to anything more than "cute." It's a love story that successfully gets us to want its main characters to be together, charming us long enough to overlook its overall okay-ness and generally praise it for not laying on the raunch like most of its kin.