Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (12A)

Alison Rowat's Review

After Twilight, and now Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, teen movies are taking on a welcome cool streak. There are still orgies of sex and vomiting out there for those who want them, but at least now there’s a choice between sweet and witty or sour and brainless.

Peter Sollett’s New York-set drama, a little bit Catcher in the Rye, a lot American Graffiti, belongs in the first club. Nick and Norah are already something of a franchise, with the story beginning life as a novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. Here to flesh out the characters on film, and make the soundtrack an iTunes hit, are Michael Cera (Juno, Superbad) and Kat Dennings. As characters, both score highly on the cute and happening barometer. Nick is like a grown-up version of the character Cera played in Juno: he’s smart, slightly nerdy, plays in a band and has recently had his heart put through a shredder by a girl. Witty, sensitive, artistic Norah would be perfect for him, but fate, as ever, has other notions.

You know exactly where the rambling story is heading, but enough of a good time is had by all as boy meets girl, girl wonders if she’s still in love with her ex-boyfriend, and so on. It’s all about as deep as a puddle, but the music is great and the leads are a watchable pair.

After Juno, Superbad, and now this, Cera is rapidly becoming the dorky Brad Pitt of the iGeneration. As with Sollett, who covered similar ground in Raising Victor Vargas, it might be time for a change of scene, but why rush when you’re having this much fun?

Paul Greenwood's Review

The spectre of Juno is all over this teen rom-com, though that's not necessarily a bad thing. It certainly wants to inhabit that particular brand of indie quirk, from the kookiness of the credits to the ultra hip soundtrack.

Juno co-star Michael Cera plays Nick, pining for his ex-girlfriend when he meets Norah (Kat Dennings) on a night out.

Meanwhile Norah's drunk friend has gone missing and so the search is on to find her and a mystery gig on a night-long odyssey complicated by both their exes. Can Nick get over his hang-ups for long enough to realise he and Norah are perfect for each other?

Though it plays nicely against the usual formula for these kind of things, it's not nearly as funny as it thinks it is and too often goes for the obvious or the unnecessarily gross.

But sometimes a line will really hit the spot and the interplay between Nick and Norah always sparkles.

Dennings goes for smart and feisty, just like a certain up-the-duff Miss MacGuff, and she could become one to watch. Cera does his sweet and sensitive thing yet again, and though it hasn't quite grown old yet, he may not get away with it too many more times.