Michael Cera returns in the new film Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist.  Cera plays Nick, a sensitive somewhat awkward teen (Cerra’s specialty) and the only straight member in an underground, gaycore metal band.  Recently dumped by his girlfriend Tris, played by Alexis Dziena, he’s been making copious amounts of mix CDs documenting their relationship and proclaiming his love.  Each disc features carefully selected tracks from uber-cool indie bands.  Tris is pretty but shallow.  Most of his digitally encoded emotional outpourings have been thrown away without even a listen.  However, these crassly disposed discs have fallen into the hands of Norah (Kat Dennings).  She’s never met Nick but has fallen in love with his song selection, dubbing him her “musical soulmate”.

Nick and Norah eventually have the obligatory “meet cute” at one of Nick’s shows.  Tris’ teasing of Norah for her lack of boyfriend drives Norah to enlist Nick to pretend to be her date for the evening.  Norah doesn’t realize that Nick is Tris’ ex nor does Nick realize that it is Tris whose wrath motivates Norah.  Nick and Norah are quickly thrown together for a raucous evening on the town due to the machinations of Nick’s band mates.  Nick & Norah traipse all over New York, first looking for a secret show from the legendary (and fictional) band Where’s Fluffy; and later in search of Norah’s lost and perpetually drunk friend.

Kat Dennings gives and extremely likeable performance as Norah, a girl that’s unsure of herself in a world full of stick-thin, party girls.  She has a figure that’s striking but too often mistaken for “chubby” in today’s world.  Nick’s band mates help her reveal that figure without being slutty and point her in the direction of their friend.  At first Nick is dismissive of Norah.  He’s hung up on Tris and doesn’t recognize that perhaps moving forward is better than looking backward.  Norah mistakes his reticence to give up on Tris for lusting after the more traditionally “pretty” girl.  This creates some rather caustic responses from her which he in turn reads as disinterest on her part.  Nick and Norah or equally unsure of themselves and their time together becomes an elaborate dance of inadvertent slights and insults but in a very realistic way.  This isn’t a Three’s Company episode.  It never feels like the writers are deliberately creating obstacles.  Their awkwardness and fear of rejection is palpable and organic.

Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist is a delightful little movie with a somewhat misguided trailer (as Hollywood is wont to do).  Due to the recent success of Michael Cera (Arrested Development, Superbad, Juno) the trailer has been cut to look like a follow up to one of those films (especially Superbad) which is unfortunate.  If you go to this movie looking for that movie, you’ll be in for a disappointment.  This movie has all the sweetness of Superbad with (virtually) none of the crassness.  While sometimes it doesn’t feel like much happens in the film, that’s also part of its appeal.  It’s not trying to beat you over the head with its jokes.  There are a few big laughs but the movie thrives more on the little laughs and the chemistry between its two titular stars.  Also, the charm of Michael Cera goes a long way.  While some will complain that he seems to be playing the same character repeatedly, it’s not really the case.  He has a very distinctive delivery and mannerisms but so did Jimmy Stewart and he certainly wasn’t playing the same character repeatedly.  Granted, I recognize that Stewart is pretty lofty territory in which to place an actor this young.  But I really can’t think of another actor that has the same capacity to portray such an earnest sense of pureness or project that degree of sincerity.  His character’s shyness doesn’t seem to come from a place of weakness but from a place of politeness.  He’s nice.  And he doesn’t want to be “un-nice”.

Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist has an art-house sensibility.  It’s as much “crazy-night-on-the-town” movie as it is a character study.  At times however, that can make the film seem a little thin.  For of all of its charm (and there is plenty) it can feel like not much is actually happening.  If the movie’s leads weren’t so well cast, I think that would be a much more accurate description.  But luckily we have Cera and Dennings, two performers so easy to root for that we’re more than willing to follow them on their late night run.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being Sixteen Candles and 1 being Midnight Madness, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist gets a 7.