'Nick & Norah' Not So Much…
Posted by anastasia on 10-31-2008Today's Youth Advisory Board post is from Liz Funk who just saw "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist" and wasn't really loving it. I'll let her explain…To contact our Youth Advisory Board directly, just email them at youthadvisoryboard at ypulse.com.
The Teen Media Limbo
Like many teen and twentysomething females in the U.S., I have a little crush on Michael Cera, the 20-year-old Canadian actor most known for his roles in "Arrested Development," "Superbad," "Juno," and most recently, "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist." See Anastasia’s review here.
I went to see "Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist" (based on the popular young adult fiction book) a few nights ago and was surprised by how packed the theater was despite the movie having been out for some time. But I was also surprised, because it was the first movie I’d ever been to that people actually booed at!
To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t in love with the movie, either. I just found the whole thing to be pretty unrealistic—if not for the orgasm that we see registering on the recording studio equipment, then for the mere concept that it’s illegal for people under 18 to drive in New York City, and if Nick and his friends were actually 18, very few people drive in Manhattan and certainly not teenagers from New Jersey (everyone takes the train!).
I can appreciate a lot of things about "Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist"—the positive approach to teen sexuality, the positive approach to teen homosexuality, and the pretty, but healthy-looking girl with a rather deep voice (Kat Dennings) playing Norah.
But I think the key problem with "Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist" is that it blurs the boundaries of teen media. The movie wasn’t outrageous enough to be posited as escapist, just-for-fun kind of entertainment, but it wasn’t realistic enough for its audience to really identify with the film or feel comforted by its portrayal of adolescence. It’s like how the TV shows "Gossip Girl" and "Degrassi" get away with broadcasting rather ridiculous, unrealistic stuff: No one expects it to be realistic or to be a model of how today’s teens live, and it’s very clearly marketed as teen drama that young people shouldn’t compare their lives to or try to emulate. (Actually, CW’s "Gossip Girl" makes that extremely clear, judging by the billboards and ads for the show picturing the characters in lip-lock in various states of undress, emblazoned with quotes from negative reviews: "EVERY PARENT’S NIGHTMARE" and "MIND-BLOWINGLY INAPPROPRIATE").
But even though Nick and Norah don’t have a lot in common with Nate and Blair, I didn’t get the sense that …Infinite Playlist was realistic enough for teens to really resonate with the film. I had assumed that a movie about a lonely guy in skinny jeans who likes indie rock would aim to make teen viewers identify with the movie and perhaps even feel comforted or less alone. But instead, the film showed these kids speeding around New York City, going to nice clubs and lounges, and hooking up in recording studios (which honestly, all sound like Gossip Girl elements)—without the overt disclaimers that escapist teen media come with. I sense that Nick and Norah… might compel teen viewers to feel like, "Oh. These characters are very similar to me, but my life isn’t anywhere near that exciting. Damn!"
I know, I know, I’m being pretty hard on the poor movie. But it's an interesting discussion. In teen media, it seems that there are shows and books that are clearly meant to entertain and don’t seek to show teens what their lives should look like (i.e. Gossip Girl, 90210, Privileged) and there is media that really speaks for a generation and helps teens have a sense of community as they struggle with the awkwardness of adolescence (i.e. "Freaks and Geeks," "Lizzie McGuire," and, to a certain extent, "Superbad"). But when teen media blurs that line, are they doing more harm than good by showing unrealistic depictions of teen life and encouraging teens to try and identify?
About Liz
Liz Funk is a freelance writer and college student. She has written for USA Today, Newsday, the Christian Science Monitor, the Huffington Post, Girls' Life, and CosmoGIRL!, among other publications. Her first book, Supergirls Speak Out, about the pressure on girls to be perfect, will be published by Simon and Schuster in March of 2009. She writes a blog for the Albany, NY newspaper the Times Union and she edits the teen culture and politics blog GirlHeadQuarters.org. She is a senior at Pace University and lives in Manhattan. Her web-site is www.lizfunk.com.
Categorized under: Movies & Music, Youth Advisory Board
October 31st, 2008 at 2:43 pm
So I'll just argue with a few points. And disclaimer I super loveed Nick and Norah (the movie and the book)
First on the driving age. The laws about driving ages are still fairly recent and fairly unique to this part of the country. NJ has fairly strict driving laws that do go against a lot of the traditional view of what a teenager can do in the rest of the country.
Both authors and the screen writer are even older then myself (25) and so when they were teens these new driving laws were around. And when I was a teen many people would drive in to the city. Especially if it was for a show as the Buses stop running. which is a big problem for Norah is she lives in Englewood Cliffs. Also bands need some way to get their equipment around the city.
At this moment in time perhaps it is harder for a teen to legally drive around NYC but it wasn't always that way and it doesn't make much sense to talk about NJ's crazy driving laws in the movie. I would give a break to the writers here just since these laws barely more the 5 years old. Just like when Nick "drives in to NYC" when he is clearly driving out of the Lincoln Tunnel. It's annoying to us Jersey folk but it's mostly just movie magic.
When it comes to all the crazy places they go it seems to me that is all explained. The only reason they get to those places is cause Norah is known as the daughter of a famous record exec. This does not seem to be that absurd to me. It's not pedestrian but it's not fantasy either. And if you've seen the housing prices in Englewood Cliffs then I feel that her situation is not that far out of bounds.
I personally don't think this movie is so fantastical (orgasm aside which has both good and bad points).
Personally I disagree that there are only two choices of fantasy-escapism and the characters where you personally identify with. I think you can view someone's life who is different then your own and enjoy it with out needing to emulate it or write it off as pure fantasy.
My last note is on SuperBad which is mentioned at the end about a movie that teens can identify with. A movie I also super loved and consider it to be the Can't Hardly Wait of modern times. SuperBad is super fantastical with very little basis on reality. Wild plot points that are held together only with suspension of belief. I don't think the fantasy part takes away from the life lessons but I think it's hard to use as a counter point to Nick and Norah.
October 31st, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Great article Liz! I haven't seen the movie so I can't really judge it, but I completely agree with your point about some shows/movies trying to get teens to relate even though the storylines are not realistic. At least shows like Gossip Girl make it clear that the characters are rich and lead completely different lifestyles than most of us could ever dream of. I'm fine with the shows like that, that give viewers an escape and ability to fantasize that they too could have that over-the-top lifestyle. The biggest problem is that there are so few shows or movies out there that actually get it and give teens/young adults something they can totally relate to.
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:06 am
First of all… I am a bit older than the target audience (30) and I haven't seen the movie, although the existence of an orgasm scene seem to be a bit of a divergence from the book.
I really enjoyed the book and felt like the connection with the characters was not a connection with the events of the night (realistic or otherwise) but rather a connection with the thoughts and feelings of the characters during those events. I didn't wander NYC during my teen years, but I did go to parties, shows, coffee houses, late night Denny's/IHOP trips and the like. I met girls, felt a connection, lost the connection, felt frustrated, reconnected, etc…
Maybe teens who are currently living through their teen years see it differently. Maybe they see the actual events of the evening as what to aspire to and if they aren't having those kind of adventures they are missing out. For me, though, I felt like I wasn't as weird as I might have thought. I haven't had the literal experience they had, but I've had the intellectual/emotional equivalent at some point. Only the details were different.
I think if I were still 18 and reading this book, I would wish that I had adventures exciting as Nick and Nora's, but I hope that I would have still seen beyond that and been able to say, my adventures may not be as glamorous as theirs, but I understand where they are coming from and can see some of myself in them.
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:40 am
Liz,
You're looking at this little movie through a microscope. No one outside a tiny minority care about the licensing age, correct tunnels, etc. Most viewers forget a movie right after they walk out. It's escapist fluff for those who like Michael Cera, and pretty darn good fluff. Teens and adults (I'm one of those) have enough sense to draw the line between movies and reality. I realize you must write about something, and try to make it meaningful, but this movie is not psychoanalyzable.
August 15th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Dear Liz:
I don't understand the last lines of this film. What is the "it" that Nora asks Nick if he's sorry that he missed?
Thanks,
Doc