Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Is Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist a romantic comedy? Maybe. And maybe that's the problem. I'll tell you what it's not: particularly funny. I went in not expecting much- a) some laughs, b) some classic Michael Cera awkwardness, c) some appearances by other stars of the Judd Apatow comedy universe... I got very little of A, a spattering of B, and not enough C to salvage the thing. Of course, Judd Apatow has nothing to do (at least nothing credited) with the making of this movie, so perhaps it was unfair of me to hold it up to modern comedy classics such as Superbad or Knocked up.

So without the funny, what are you left with? A dude, who starts out liking one girl but over the course of the movie decides she's lame and the girl of his dreams is right under his nose. Hmm. Seems remarkably rom-com-ish.

There were some fun elements- I liked how they treated New York as a sort of playground for these kids (although you can toss realism out the door- it's never been so easy to park directly in front of every club you go to in NYC, and how do these high school kids get into EVERY bar, and what New Jersey parent lets their kids stay out in NYC until after dawn), and I liked the idea of the mysterious Where's Fluffy band, although the utter lack of any payoff was unfortunate. I was expecting/hoping that when they finally saw the band someone they had met earlier or been hanging out with all night was part of it or something... But no. Just as the band is about to make a grand entrance... the protagonists leave (despite spending the whole night searching for this band) to give us the ultimate romantic comedy cop-out: "My newfound love with someone I didn't even know before tonight is way more important than seeing the band we both love most of all and spent all night searching for."