Nick and Norah: Not Your Average Teens
After seasons of mostly vapid teenage characters dominating the screen, big and small, Kat Dennings bucks the trend with her role in the movie “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” in theaters October 3.
Dennings plays Norah Silverman, a feisty high-school senior music fan whose all-nighter in Manhattan with new love interest Nick (Michael Cera who last year starred in the hits “Superbad” and “Juno”) evolves into a coming-of-age tale. Based on the young adult novel by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, the film, directed by Peter Sollett, presents an alternative portrait of your average Jewish American Princess. Norah, who is more “My So-Called Life” than “Gossip Girl,” shuns fashion in favor of flannel shirts, considers deferring her Brown University enrollment to work on a kibbutz, and tries to avoid the fame and attention she receives as a result of her big macher record producer father.
Though the movie adaptation left out some of the book’s Jewish components (the Forward itself makes an appearance in the novel, though not the film, as substitute for porn for Norah’s Israel-obsessed ex-boyfriend), Norah’s role as the anti-JAP remains. In both the book and the film, her explanation of tikkun olam serves as a pivotal moment. The concept of healing and putting pieces back together becomes a metaphor for true human connection, something these almost-adults are just beginning to learn.
Dennings, who is Jewish in real life and known for her other no-nonsense roles, like the unglamorous feminist in the recently released film “The House Bunny,” has said that this character is more like herself than any parts she has played in the past. Good thing, considering her only other Jewish role was her cameo as the bratty, pushy bat mitzvah girl on HBO’s “Sex and the City.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30