Like a mix-tape of merriment; Cera & Dennings have chemistry, baby, chemistry!

Rating: 8/10 (8 October 2008)

NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST (2008) *** Michael Cera, Kat Dennings, Ari Graynor, Alexis Dziena, Aaron Yoo, Rafi Gavron, Jonathan B. Wright, Jay Baruchel, (Cameos: Seth Meyers, Eddie Kaye Thomas, John Cho, Kevin Corrigan, Andy Samberg) Entertaining and funny rom-com for the MySpace generation ala vintage John Hughes about one crazy night spent in NYC's LES with two NJ-ite teens (baby seal incarnate Cera and Addams Family second cousin Kennings as the titular pair) who wind up together despite the odds of their friends, their exes and each other, in an attempt to find their favorite band in an after hours rare live performance. The two leads have chemistry, baby, chemistry and are a winning couple in a post-ironic, self-deprecating waycool way (way!) Graynor steals the movie as Dennings' Drunky McDrunk-Drunk gal pal whose inebriation is a cinematic marvel of ill- inducing slapstick involving her ever-present chewing gum (trust me it's up there with Cameron Diaz' 'gel doo' in THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY for ickness factor for laughs). In spite of the Gen-Next indie music jukebox (which this Gen X'er totally can't appreciate; what can I tell ya, it all sounds the same to me  unmemorable static) the film runs on all cylinders thanks to a shrewdly clever screenplay by Lorene Scafaria (who has a memorable cameo involving Cera's Yugo-as-taxi-makeout sequence) based on a novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levitan, and rollickingly droll direction by Peter Sollett.