COMEDY/ROMANCE

After key roles in Superbad and Juno, Michael Cera has emerged as the leading geek for hire of US teen cinema. He furthers his reputation in this slight but likable comedy.

The only straight member of a struggling queercore band, nerdy Nick (Cera) is in the process of being painfully dumped by girlfriend Tris (Alexis Dziena), who thoughtlessly disregards the mix CD that Nick has painstakingly put together for her. Nick’s esoteric taste in music finds a place in the heart of Norah (Kat Dennings), who tentatively teams up with Nick for a incident-packed ride through Manhattan night-life to track down a secret gig by their favourite obscure band, Where’s Fluffy?

After an impressive debut with Raising Victor Vargas, director Peter Sollett and screenwriter Lorene Scafaria have studiously adapted the cult novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan to fit a timeframe similar to that in Martin Scorsese’s After Hours and Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise (overnight basically). Though never in danger of overshadowing these illustrious forerunners, there’s enough acerbic and caustic dialogue to paper over the films many conceptual cracks.

General release from Fri 30 Jan.