peter sollett Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Starring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is a light, slight, fleet-footed teen comedy of romance and indie rock; there are logic holes in it, and lulls, and moments that seem devoid of sense, to be sure, but there are also moments in where Cera or Dennings will smile and your momentary doubts and disagreements are washed away and your head is filled with a sense of gladness, not despair, that you're watching our young, happy hipster heroes on screen. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist combines the shaggy-dog sprawl of an early John Hughes film with the blunt talk and softly-rounded feelings of the Apatow comedies, and if it did not have leads as charismatic and tonally correct as Cera and Dennings, it would be very close to dead in the water; however, since it does, it isn't.

Taking place in some movie version of Manhattan where parking is always immediately available and everyone over 25 has, apparently, been executed Logan's Run-style, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist begins as Nick (Cera) is trying, and failing, to get over his breakup with the tedious-yet-tempting, hot-yet-hateful Tris (Alexis Dzienia), leaving lengthy messages on her phone and exquisitely sequenced mix discs at her door. Tris laughingly discards Nick's most recent effort into the trash at school; sarcastic-but-sweet Norah (Kat Dennings) retrieves it, as she's done for several of Nick's discarded offerings: "He makes the best mixes ever." The fact that Nick's latest effort is labeled "The Road to Closure, Vol. 12" tells you that Nick has strong feelings, and, in this case, weak vocabulary skills.

It's been fun getting just about a superhero movie a week for the past couple of months; really, it has. And of course, everything has been building to The Dark Knight, which we'll finally get to see at various points next week. I dig it, but I'd be lying if I wasn't looking forward to the fall. Specifically the Toronto Film Festival. And more specifically still, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, Michael Cera's follow-up to last year's overwhelmingly successful one-two of Superbad and Juno. (It's also director Peter Sollett's follow-up to the underseen Raising Victor Vargas). It looks fantastic, and perfect for Cera, who continues to transplant his schtick into different genres and contexts.

MTV Movies has Nick & Norah's new poster, which is perfect, and sweet, and makes me want to give the movie a hug. It's pitched as a love story set in the cinematically underrepresented hipster music scene, and the poster encapsulates that to a T. (It also, for better or worse, just takes a still from the film that was released back in January). I wouldn't dare call myself a hipster, but I've dipped my toes in that world, and I'd love to see a smart movie about it. Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist premieres at Toronto in preparation for an October 3rd release.

Come to think of it, I think I'll take on the novel by Rachel Cohn and David Leviathan in my From Page to Screen column next week. Hope you'll check it out.

Now that Superbad has made him a household name (because God forbid anyone actually watched Arrested Development), Michael Cera is starting to pile on the gigs. Variety reports that Cera will star alongside Kat Dennings (who's also doing quite well for herself as of late) in Mandate Pictures' Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, based on the novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. The story is said to revolve around two "bridge-and-tunnel teenagers, nursing broken hearts, who fall in love during one sleepless night in New York while searching for their favorite band's unannounced show." For those who do not know what a "bridge-and-tunnel teenager" is, that just means they don't live in the city; instead, they live in a place (Long Island, most of the time) where one needs to take either a bridge or a tunnel to get into the city. Usually, on Friday and Saturday nights, the hot spots in NYC are filled with the so-called "bridge-and-tunnel crowd," and the locals stay away. Hard to explain why, but let's just say you can spot them from a mile away.

Anyway, I'm pretty stoked to see they tapped Peter Sollett to direct the film. Sollett first broke onto the scene with a little indie (made on the cheap) called Raising Victor Vargas, about two teenagers from the Lower East Side of Manhattan who struggle to maintain their sanity amidst an eccentric cast of characters. I really liked the film, and was excited to see a new New York City-based director interested in telling stories about New Yorkers who weren't covered in money, living in gigantic apartments that just don't exist in reality unless you have over $4 million to blow. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist will mark Sollett's first gig since Vargas (amazing that it's taken this long for him to get something else going), and the script was written by Lorene Scafaria. Sony Pictures will distribute, while production is scheduled to begin later this year.