Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Well, my good readers, I know I haven't been posting much lately. As I stated in my last post, I've been prone to depression all my life and feel one settling in lately. Depression can be a mutha fuckah, so Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist was just what I needed to help my funk today. I've been looking forward to seeing it since I saw the trailers because it looked cute.

Directed by Peter Sollett, the film is written by Lorene Scafaria and based on a novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. Starring Michael Cera as Nick and Kat Dennings as Norah. It's sort of a romantic comedy for the young hipster set and I've read a few people on the IMDB boards say that this is like Before Sunset for this generation. Not entirely sure I agree with that one.


Basically, Nick is dumped by his superficial girlfriend of six months, Tris (Alexis Dziena). Nick has been making song mixes on CD for Tris in an attempt to win her back. Tris doesn't like them and has been throwing them away, only to be taken out of the trash by Norah, who loves them. Nick, being in a funk, doesn't want to go out, but his friends and band members, Dev (Rafi Gavron) and Thom (Aaron Yoo) drag him out with them for a gig anyway. Nick and Norah meet by chance and end up spending a crazy evening together. Nick's friends decide they like Norah a lot better than his ex and create an opportunity for them to be alone, while they babysit Norah's drunk friend, Caroline (Ari Graynor). The only problem is....they lose Caroline. Madcap hijinks ensue.


I thought it was a cute movie. I like it when you don't always know exactly what's going to happen and when there are a few surprises. Nick and Norah were definitely cute together and Cera and Dennings have good chemistry. A little bit formulaic, but I somewhat expected that. I enjoyed it regardless. Nick's friends and band mates added some extra humour and Tris made a good nemesis to Norah. Although I did notice quite a few people on the IMDB boards asking, "what does such a sweet kid like Nick see in such a superficial, bitchy monster like Tris?". I really liked it and it helped my mood on this rainy, crappy day. Good if you're in the mood for a little pick me up, but I probably wouldn't buy the DVD when it came out. From the part where Dev is explaining to Nick why the Beatles were so popular.....

Dev: "Other bands, it's about sex, or pain, or some fantasy. But The Beatles, they knew what they were doing. You know the reason The Beatles made it so big?"
Nick: "What?"
Dev: "'I Wanna Hold Your Hand.' First single. Fucking brilliant. Perhaps the most fucking brilliant song ever written, because they nailed it. That's what everyone wants. Not 24/7 hot wet sex. Not a marriage that lasts a hundred years. Not a Porsche or a blow job or a million-dollar crib. No. They wanna hold your hand. They have such a feeling that they can't hide. Every single successful song of the past fifty years can be traced back to 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand.' And every single successful love story has those unbearable and unbearably exciting moments of hand-holding. Trust me. I've thought a lot about this."

More ramblings to come.......

Autism: The Musical

I love, love, love a good documentary. I am also raising a daughter who has been diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. So imagine my complete and utter delight when I heard about a documentary on kids with the disorder called Autism: The Musical (thanks, Johnny, for highly recommending it). I managed to track down a copy on eBay and got it for roughly 17 bucks, including shipping....only to find out it's a fucking screener copy in a paper sleeve. I feel so ripped off!

Anyhoo, directed by Tricia Regan, the film follows five different children and their families who are involved in the pioneer "Miracle Project" directed by Elaine Hall, one of the children's mothers. The project involves performing a play with a group of autistic kids who help to write the songs and dialogue of the play and rehearse the play over the course of six months. The children include Elaine's son, Neal, an eleven year old boy who is diagnosed with autism who she adopted from a Russian orphanage. Wyatt, is a very talkative young boy who is also diagnosed with autism. Wyatt is frustrated that he is higher functioning than the other kids in his special education class and that he is the target of a bully. He wishes that he could be in a regular class and not be seen as disabled. Adam is another young boy who has been diagnosed with autism. Adam plays the cello, loves girls with long hair and has a one on one teacher with him in his regular inclusion classes. Henry is a young boy diagnosed with Aspberger's Syndrome, which many think of as high functioning autism. Henry is extremely knowledgeable about the zoology of dinosaurs and reptiles. Lexi is a fourteen year old girl who is diagnosed with autism and has a beautiful singing voice.


I really, really liked this film a lot and having a child with autism myself made it especially personal. For those of you who may not be aware, autism is a neurological disorder that affects the way a person processes information. Their brains are wired differently than everybody else's. In 1980, one in ten thousand children were diagnosed as autistic, today that number is one in a hundred and fifty children. Boys are four times more likely to be affected than girls. I could see in the kids a lot of the characteristics and behavior that my daughter has. For example, when Wyatt, Adam or Henry cover their ears, my daughter does that a LOT. She is hyper sensitive when it comes to sound. The other thing is the impulsivity of some of the kids, my daughter also has that. She doesn't like big crowds, so it's more difficult out at a busy shopping mall with her. She also has some of the tantrum like behavior of some of the other kids and I think part of that is frustration of not being able to communicate what she'd like. She is like Lexi in the way that she's echolalic (repeats a lot of what she hears) but doesn't generate a lot of original speech. Although we don't really think of her as disabled, I think of her as differently abled. She's a tech whiz with a special interest in music. She can put together a puzzle faster than anybody else.


I really liked the realism of not just the children and their behavior and different struggles, but the struggles of the families. They showed how autism had created stress in marriages and relationships with one marriage breaking up during the filming of the documentary. Another family saw the husband have an affair, with the wife attributing it to the denial of their son's autism. I guess if I had a beef with the realism of the portrayals of the families, it would be the lack of monetary struggles. You see, Adam's parents include a former actress and model with a father who's company shared the Nobel Peace Prize. Henry's father is Stephen Stills from Crosy, Stills, Nash and Young. Elaine, Neal's mother is a well known drama coach who works on Hollywood films. The only thing regarding money struggles was when Wyatt's parents visit a lawyer to see about fighting to get Wyatt into regular classes. They are told it would cost between twenty five and a hundred grand. When my daughter first started seeing specialists, we had just left my now ex husband. Sometimes we didn't even have money to take the bus to get to her appointments. If there was one gripe about the film, it would be that it never touched on having issues like this, but it was good all the same. Just one more minor gripe is when the one on one teacher of Adam talks about his issues and says, "just imagine if he didn't have autism....the possibilities". I happen to disagree with this because I could imagine if I was seven feet tall what a good basketball player I'd be. It's my own personal opinion that my daughter is the way she was meant to be and she's perfect just the way she is. It's challenging yes, but as someone else pointed out, parenting children in general is never easy. She's taught me patience. Another thing I appreciated was the inclusion of Lexi's mother's depression. I don't know if this is a common thing with parents of autistic kids, but having been prone to depression all my life, it certainly didn't help to be going through a divorce and the initial diagnosis of my daughter's autism at the same time. I highly recommend this film to everbody whether you have a special interest in autism or not. It's a very compelling portrait of a disorder and the many different ways it affects an individual and their families. See it! I normally end off with a memorable quote from the film, but I'd like to end with a quote from an interview with Tricia Regan, the director.....

"In this movie the kids are struggling, trying to make their way in a world that doesn't understand or accept them and that they don't understand and accept. And the parents are struggling in a world where their lives have taken a left turn they never could have predicted. "

More ramblings to come......