When Juno came out last year, it was embraced for it's quirkiness, smart and hip screenplay and indie-approved soundtrack, which was graced by Cat Power, Sonic Youth and, most prominently, the Moldy Peaches's Kimya Dawson. Dawson grew from an underground obscurity to a center-of-the-radar obscurity. The soundtrack shot up the charts, and Dawson set out for a sold-out tour- including one particularly curious stop on the View. While many were pleased that Dawson was receiving so much praise for old and underrated work, just as many, if not more, hipsters raised their noses in disgust at Dawson, now a "sell-out."
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, based on a book of the same name, is a thoroughly enjoyable cute ditty of a film. It leaves you smiling, pleased and little more. However, I think that it's fated to reach the same fate as Juno, because of its indie'd soundtrack. On the plus side, Nick & Norah is clearly a major studio film with recognizable stars, so it's not as if its success is unexpected as it was with Juno. But the fact that it is centered around two hipster teens who slave over mixtapes, know what Electric Lady Studios are and spend an entire night sailing through the five Burroughs in search of a secret show by a cult indie band means that the film is geared toward the same demographic as indies like Juno.
The soundtrack counts songs from Vampire Weekend, Devendra Banhart (who also has a cameo in the film), Takka Takka and We Are Scientists, among others, in its infinite playlist. By all means a solid soundtrack, but also one that will surly piss off the hipsters who will no doubt see mall rats sporting Vampire Weekend t-shirts in the coming weeks.
I'm personally neutral to the situation. I really enjoyed the movie and bought the soundtrack because it had songs I like from bands I like on it. Plus, I couldn't think of another way to get the Vampire Weekend song. A friend of mine, and die hard Devendra fan, on the other hand, refuses to see the movie. She thinks that it exploits indie bands by marketing them to the masses who won't appreciate their sound, and will listen to the music only for its shallow, materialistic value.
What do you think?
