The title knowingly evokes The Thin Man, but a more accurate reference point would be Superbad. Except that this is no Apatow-style bromance: instead, indie kids Michael Cera and Kat Dennings do the brand-new-soulmate thing over one incident-and-Pitchfork-
Best-New-Music-filled night in Brooklyn’s various hipster enclaves (i.e. the sort of place where Bishop Allen gets a gig).

In short: this is not the sort of movie that many of us wanted Peter Sollett to make after his fine, sincerely independent debut Raising Victor Vargas. Yet Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist is better than it sounds, partly because Sollett pushes gamely past the script’s rom-com potholes, and partly because he’s got a real knack with young actors. Granted, Cera isn’t exactly stretching his talents by playing an awkward straight-edged teenager, but he’s less mannered than usual, and Dennings — who played so well off of Anna Faris in The House Bunny — is slyly fetching as the object of his (and, eventually, our) affections. She’s positively triumphant during what must be 2008’s most memorable mainstream climax — a double entendre that boldly overturns a double standard about the pleasure principle in teen comedies.