Cardboard: good for storage, moving, forts and, to
Linfield College’s image management classes, art.

Image management is taught by Cris Moss,
director of Miller Fine Arts Gallery and adjunct professor of art and visual culture, and Liz Obert, associate professor of art and visual culture, and is an introductory art class meant to get people looking at,
talking about and creating art, Moss said.

The classes’ most recent project is making art out of a 4-by-8-feet sheet of cardboard. First, students built small-scale models of their ideas and, as a class, brainstormed ways to improve and solve problems regarding their projects.

However, what works on a small scale, does not always work out on a large scale, Obert said, and the project has few guidelines.

“We try not to give [students] preconceived ideas of what the solution is  because sometimes it’s more about failure,” she said.

Obert added that giving the class a raw material, such as cardboard, without strict parameters forces students to think creatively.

Moss had similar objectives assigning the project, saying there is no prescription for how to create something: Some students approach the project very mathematically, and some just start ripping up the cardboard.

“Lots of people make functional objects, but they are completely
dysfunctional because they are made out of cardboard,” he said.

Some students have trouble making “workable” art, including freshman Alison Pate. For her project, Pate molded the cardboard into a toaster.

“You know how sometimes when you burn your toast and it gets black and tastes like cardboard? That’s what I thought of,” she said.

One of the problems, she said, was trying to get the toaster to function. She built it based on a real toaster, but she said she couldn’t get it to work quite right. So, she made it “broken.”

“The dial is always set at six and never one, so it always burns your toast,” she said.

However, she said the project was a bit daunting.

“I was really intimidated because it’s a 4-by-8-feet sheet of cardboard,” she said. “That’s taller than I am.”

Another student, freshman Josie Silberbach, agreed that cardboard was a
difficult medium to work with.

“Basically, everything about working with cardboard is extremely frustrating,” she said.

For her cardboard project, Silberbach fashioned a tree. She said she initially had the idea to make a realistic one, but decided it was too
pretty and average, so it became abstract.

Her interpretation of the project, she said, was being forced to work with a medium one would not readily work with.

Moss had this in mind, saying he was trying to get students out of the mindset, “I’m doing an art project so I should go to the art store,” and to really research their work.

“The project is not about finding the beauty in cardboard,” he said. “It’s about finding the beauty in
problem solving.”

Dominic Baez

When I went to see “Sexdrive,” I was expecting another “Superbad,” another awkwardly funny teen sex comedy. Not that that is a bad thing, mind you, I just wasn’t sure if it was going to be worth the $10.25 I paid to watch it.

I was wrong and was pleasantly surprised to find out the plot takes you for quite a wild ride.

The three main characters in the story, Ian, played by Josh Zuckerman; Felicia, played by Amanda Crew; and Lance, played by Clark Duke, are a strikingly good trio, and their distinct personalities work well together. Ian, a young virgin who has absolutely no luck with women, poses as a football player while trying to court a girl, who goes by the name Ms. Tasty, online. And that’s just how it starts out.

When the girl invites him to go “all the way,” he steals his brother’s GTO and heads to Knoxville with Felicia and Lance.

The ensuing road trip proves to be what one would expect: Getting caught in ridiculous sexual situations, racing down the highway to prove manliness, milking cows, etc. I mean, everything that could possibly screw with the group did and in the best ways possible.

Two supporting characters, Rex, played by James Marsden, and Ezekiel, played by Seth Green, will have you rolling with laughter in no time flat. Rex, Ian’s jerk of an older brother, is one crazy S.O.B. He’s a jerk, temperamental and a little insane. Trust me, though, his character will prove to be most entertaining. I know I enjoyed it immensely.

Ezekiel, on the other hand, will have you staring at the screen for a minute, wondering what the hell he just said. He’s definitely one of those characters you have to watch if you want to understand what is going on, but it is totally worth it in the end.

One of my favorite lines: “I refuse to be embarrassed by a car that looks like a Trapper Keeper.”

Those who enjoy witty humor are going to get a kick out of Lance. His sense of humor is dark at best, which balances poor Ian out perfectly, and is the cause of several accidents.

On the way, the group discovers sex isn’t the most important thing, and true love can be found in both odd and familiar places.

It’s not exactly stunningly original, but it’s still a hilarious film. The leads do a pretty good job. I recommend this movie to fans of comedy and awkward moments.

Photo by Kristin Shimabukuro

Artist displays unique approach to pieces, bringing mystery and spontaneity, open to interpretation

Diane Lou, wife of Nils Lou, chair and professor of art and visual culture, is displaying her creative work in the Moments exhibit in the Miller Fine Arts Center gallery, and it is a sight to be seen.

She gathers her materials from a variety of places: the beach, things found around the house, things collected outdoors, things found on the street and, mainly, Goodwill bins. These objects, thought to be mere broken bits of society, are transformed into works that evoke emotion and challenge perspective in any viewer.

“No piece starts with a theme,” Lou said. “A theme tends to evolve as the piece comes together.”

Culminations of such items as cobbler’s tools, dried frogs, a Starbuck’s stress relief ball and bingo numbers placed in boxes or backed with chessboards allow people to delve into each piece.

Every piece has a sense of mystery, she said. As a writer sets the plot, Lou introduces the characters, but the story is the viewer’s to unfold. Each piece is completely open to interpretation in its own way, as good art should be, Lou said. The pieces have a variety of layers; often times, someone cannot see them all in one look.

Her pieces are comprised of other, smaller pieces, such as an orchestra made not only of violins but also of French horns, cellos, flutes, oboes and much more.

Lou takes a positive stance not only in her creations but the creation of all art.

“Art is something that evolves as you go, that allows it to be limitless,” she said. “Art without mystery is not art. There should be ambiguity to it.”

She was happy to report on the spontaneity of her work, saying sometimes she will see two objects next to each other, in combinations she would never have imagined, and then a piece is well on its way to fruition as
layers of variety and expression are added.

Her recommendation to fellow artists is not to judge yourself as you go. Nothing can ever be good or bad in its creation; it all has potential, she said.

Lou described her art as found-object art that allows its audience to come to limitless conclusions. There isn’t anything that cannot be recycled, she said.

While the projects have been called dark and mysterious, Lou calls the process visceral. All her life she has been fascinated with shape, texture, form and arrangement. Her passion is clear upon viewing her work.

Photo courtesy of Mary-Lou Zeek

Lizzie Martinez

For Totem Shriver, adjunct professor of art and visual culture, art is not just something to do: It is where you live. The world around the artist permeates the art, he said.

“Would I be creating the same art if I lived in the desert?” Shriver said. “I doubt it.”

Originally from Kansas, Shriver moved to rural Oregon 23 years ago. He also lived on the East Coast, an experience he described as worth it because of the museums.

His art has reflected the nature around him ever since his move. Wood is Shrivers main medium. He said he has always been drawn to the senses of smell and touch. Each piece he creates grows from his own designs. The designs do not depict a specific picture; rather, the images draw from a subconscious level, he said.

Once he has drawn a simple design of basic shapes, Shriver begins creating the final form by working with the wood.

“Wood has a voice,” Shriver said. “I like finding the voice of the wood in the piece. People who are drawn to my work understand the conversation I am having with the wood.”

Though he does not use models, Shriver said his work is not abstract because it is generated from a specific design. The image may not be concrete, but it is a carefully planned composition.

“Everyone sees images they recognize [in my work],” Shriver said. “It opens the field to interpretation. I hope the viewer walks away with questions, not answers.”

Currently, George Fox University is hosting some of Shriver’s woodcarvings in a show. Freed Gallery in Lincoln City and Bush Barn in Salem also sell woodcarvings by Shriver.

For the last six years, Shriver has been teaching art at Linfield. He mainly teaches introductory art classes, such as Image Management.

“Teaching has added a lot to my work,” Shriver said. “It has made me grow as an artist.”

Shriver asks students to complete several pieces of art in different media. Shriver said the point is not for the student to try to please the teacher, but for the student to explore his or her own expression of art.

“People get stuck in the ‘I’m not good enough’ phase,” he said.

To work past the block in students’ work, Shriver focuses on giving them the tools necessary to develop and execute a design using basic principles of composition.

“I like to introduce exercises and get out of the way,” Shriver said. “They need time to think; art is 90 percent thinking.”

Sophomore Helen Maltese said she enjoys the open-ended projects in a variety of media, though sometimes it is difficult to discover what she wants to do with her art.

One of the most rewarding elements of working as an adjunct is watching the students grow, Shriver said. He usually meets students during their freshmen or sophomore years when they enroll in introductory art classes. He said it is interesting to see how they change during their four years, from freshmen exploring art to senior art majors hosting thesis shows.

Many of his students are not art majors. Shriver hopes they come away from his classes with an appreciation for art and the ability to
critique it.

In his class, Shriver emphasizes that art is not a random collection of shapes, but a designed composition that can be analyzed from many perspectives including color, form and lines.

“I’ve learned to be less traditional when it comes to judging art and what is ‘beautiful,’” Maltese said about Shriver’s class.

In addition to being a working artist and adjunct professor, Shriver also pays the bills by working as a massage therapist. Though he is always doing something, Shriver is never too busy for art. He advises artists to make time to create art.

“You can think all you want, but it really requires sitting down and going forward,” he said.

Photo by Rachel Palinkas

Dominic Baez

It’s hard enough to come up with a topic for a term paper, much less trying to put one together. Now, imagine trying to create an exhibit without a theme, without an obvious cohesive unit. That is what TJ Norris did with .meta, the newest exhibit in the Miller Fine Arts Gallery.

Norris is the curator for .meta, a “themeless” exhibit featuring artists Nayland Blake, Jesse Paul Miller, Stephanie Robison, Robin Rimbaud, Jack Daws, Harrison Higgs, John Waters, Jenevive Tatiana, PE Lang + Zimoun, Eva Speer and D.E. May.

Cris Moss, gallery director and adjunct professor of art and visual culture, invited Norris to realize the third incarnation of his “themeless” exhibitions. Both of his previous curatorial projects in this series, grey|area (Guestroom Gallery, 2006) and invisible.other (New American Art Union, 2007) focused on exploring the origins of ideas, not complete thoughts.

“I’m a glutton for the challenge that comes with critical oversight and review,” Norris said.

He said .meta is the finale of an unofficial three-part curatorial series that began with grey|area and included 13 West Coast artists from the Bay Area to Victoria, B.C.

“Where nature emerges as geometric and
mechanical, I often discover unique relationships between the organic and the fabricated, virtually mapping the intersection between the experiential and the concrete,” Norris’ artist statement explained. “Taking pictures or making video are acts of collecting source material for evolving multimedia projects. Like an archeologist would, I observe nature’s quintessence and digitally transpose its fragility. I seek to offer my audience a sense of immediacy with the sense of place, by bringing them closer in, causing a contextual repurposing of public versus private space.”

This isn’t the only process that has helped him create this exhibit.

“Over the past three years, I’ve developed exhibitions from digested bits and pieces of found ideas,” Norris said. “These flash moments are scrawled on receipts, shorthanded into my iPhone and sometimes based on the reliance on my own memory. Big ideas are often prefaced by even more fleeting minutiae. While building these exhibitions, much became divisible through the power of imperceptible suggestion-both philosophical and rhythmic. As such, .meta becomes a richer examination, drawing to some form of non-linear, barely narrative conclusion in this series.”

Norris said that, as a freelancer, he has enjoyed using alternative spaces and forward-thinking galleries that think beyond the consumer.

“Spaces that appeal to me most are those with the ability to bring in a cross section of the population based who welcome a thematic thrust with a twist for the unexpected,” he said.

Norris said this process is invitational, in which he mostly selects work from artists whom he watched grow in their studio practices. Because of this process, he has seen some fairly
creative art.

“A few years back, I was particularly interested in the work of John Waters in his exhibition Unwatchable and how it related directly to his work in film,” he said. “The piece ‘21 Pasolini Pimples’ speaks for its wry self by navigating flaws via a freeze-frame technique of another filmmakers work, simply isolating the imperfect flesh of his actors. That is simply brilliant to me. I’m sure that Cris Moss and his staff might have some to share about stuffing Nayland Blake’s ‘The Big One’!”

Norris will be a part of the coming exhibit, Of Other Spaces, which explores how the origins and functions of spaces shape human
behavior.

“I think it is essential that future creatives know that my own work as an artist has truly allowed me the flexibility to look into outside forms, like curation, as a mode for my voice,” he said. “In this era, we should look beyond the confines of our studio walls, to how we relate to this changing environment through relational aesthetics, collaboration, interative, kinetic work and face the truths about how technology can be integral and overused in our individual practices.”

The .meta exhibit is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. The gallery will be closed Nov. 26 and 27 and will reopen Nov. 28 and 29.

An artists’ talk will be held Nov. 12 at 4 p.m. in the gallery.

Kelley Hungerford

Copy editor

Point. Aim. Shoot. A photo is taken, but to junior art major Meghan Meehan, photography is more than just aiming a camera arbitrarily at a subject.
She said she develops all of her own film and gets involved with the entire development procedure. “I really enjoy the process,” she said.
Meehan became interested in photography in middle school when her mother gifted her a used camera from the 1970s. The camera has sentimental value because it is also the first present her dad gave her mom. Street photography was Meehan’s first true subject. She said she likes the culture and the anonymity that a city offers, and she used these in picturing the human element in an urban setting. While she said she did take pictures of people with graffiti-covered walls and bunches of cars, she was particularly fond of photographing movement.
“I started taking a lot of action shots because [I liked] capturing action,” she said.
Unfortunately, she also said she doesn’t think McMinnville is the best place for her type of work.
“I’m from Seattle, born and raised,” Meehan said. “I kind of can’t stand it here. There is nowhere to picture someone in an urban setting.”
Recently, she has been working on incorporating the figure into different elements. Associate Professor of Studio Art Liz Obert said she has seen this thread in Meehan’s portfolio.
“She seems to be doing studies in black and white, and some of them are more portraiture, all focusing on the female figure,” Obert said.
A recent piece includes a 24-piece collage of pictures depicting the human body at obscure angles. Meehan said she concentrated on close-up shots of the body so it is almost unidentifiable. She couples these with distance shots that make the images of the figure clearer.
Meehan said her biggest challenge is bringing new material and art into the world.
“[It’s] hard to stun people nowadays,” she commented.
Obert said she believes Meehan is acquiring her own eye.
Meehan said the art community at Linfield is supportive.
“I just hope that everyone goes out and takes a lot of pictures,” she said. “Because you only live once.”

Mai Doan

Review staff writer

Trombones de Costa Rica will spice up campus tonight as part of the new Linfield Lively Art Concert series.
The four trombonists will present a master class for all musicians entitled “Having Fun with Breathing” at 4 p.m. today in Delkin Hall. The formal performance will be at 8 p.m., in Delkin Recital Hall in the Vivian A. Bull Music Center.
The Trombones de Costa Rica was formed in 1991, with four members, including tenor trombonists Alejandro Gutierrez, Marin Bonilla and Leonel Rodriguez and bass trombonist Ivan Chinchilla. Their main projects are performing for recitals and educational programs.
They have traveled to places such as Caribbean, and Europe. The group won the Costa Rican National Award of Music in 1997 and the City of Passau Special Prize in Germany in 1999.
“We have known about this event with the music department for several months,” Shaik Ismail, director of the International Programs Office, said. “We co-sponsor on a regular basis for events on campus especially when it has the relationship with Costa Rica, a place where Linfield has exchange programs.”
As a co-sponsor for this event, IPO has publicized the event throughout campus and hopes for a good turn out.
“Linfield has many students who are doing a major or a minor in Spanish,” Ismail said. “IPO will continue to sponsor or co-sponsor the program of this kind, not only with music.”
He said the IPO shows its interest by bringing culture to Linfield, not just sending the students overseas.
“This event will give Linfield students an idea of Costa Rican culture,” Marie Schmidt, secretary for the
IPO, said.
She learned about the Trombones de Costa Rica from Professor of Music Joan Paddock.
“The Trombones de Costa Rica was here 12 years ago,” Paddock said. “One of them graduated from Oregon State University, and his teacher also taught at
Linfield.”
The IPO has sent out special invitations to students who studied abroad in Costa Rica and other Latin
countries.
“To the students who studied in Costa Rica, this musical event must bring back a lot of memories of what they were listening when they were abroad,” Paddock said.
The exposure to the culture can help future study abroad applicants.
“This can give the students who are planning on studying abroad a taste of the culture and make them interested in going in their future,” Paddock said. “Music is very rich in culture.”

Brianne Ries

Assistant editor

Visual Communication: Electronics is more than “lights, camera, action” for its students and its tag-team teaching duo.
Zoom-in for a close-up on adjunct professors, Kevin Curry and Devon Lyon, and you’ll see they have a lot more under their belts than teaching visual communication. Add two Linfield degrees, years of experience in business, law and communication and an up-and-coming film company to the mix, and the picture begins to focus.
Curry graduated from Linfield in 1992 with degrees in mass communication, with a concentration on
broadcasting, and political science. A member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity, a broadcaster for KSLC and an occasional contributor to The Linfield Review, Curry said in the beginning, teaching was never a thought.
“Even when I was in graduate school getting my master’s degree I didn’t think I was going to end up teaching,” he said.
However, in the spring of 1996, Curry found himself back in the mass communication department teaching Visual Communication and Broadcast Practices. He also taught Intro to Mass Communications the following year.
Lyon graduated from Linfield in 1997 with a major in political science and a minor in
philosophy.
“[Teaching was] always in the back of mind I thought it would be fun to teach, mainly because I knew Kevin, and he was sort of always teaching on the side.”
Lyon was also a member of Kappa Sigma and was the second youngest ASLC president in Linfield’s history, governing in his junior year.
The pair first met while Curry worked for a state representative in 1995, and Lyon interned for him.
After working as a communications director for a speaker of the house when he graduated, Lyon made the decision to go to law school. He worked as a lawyer for a film company in Los Angeles.
When Lyon moved back to Oregon, he still worked in political communication and law but began to look into video production as a hobby.
“I started on the side to really start just doing creative narratives, just doing little videos with my friends, but at a higher level,” Lyon said.
Lyon said he started purchasing equipment and eventually he and Curry produced a short film.
“When he came back from L.A., I had him over,” Curry said. “I was like, ‘Hey come over for pizza; Let’s catch-up,’ and we started talking about video and right then we just kind of hatched it.”
Curry said he wrote the script for the short film and took four days to shoot and that it spurred the decision to enter the video world.
“It was a great introduction to what it took to do [film], and it was great training for the two of us to know we wouldn’t kill each other working that closely on a project,” Curry said.
Lyon said he then left his law firm, and the security that went along with it, and went out on his own. He said after about a year there was enough momentum to justify bringing Curry out.
The team cites experience in video, law and business for helping establish a serious rapport with their clients.
“I think Lyon Films has grown fast in a relatively short period of time, and it’s because we’re really squared away. We get stuff done, we’re efficient and we know what the heck we’re doing,” Lyon said.
Because of that background, Lyon said clients have a sense of ease working with them and that clients trust them.
“We’re not a kid who just went to film school and is trying to hang out a shingle and make a production
company,” Lyon said.
In its short lifespan, Lyon Films has already completed projects ranging from commercials and political spots to music videos and a full-length film.
Curry and Lyon were hired on as producers of the small-budget, full-feature film “A/S/L,” but eventually took on different roles.
Lyon picked up the role of director and Curry became assistant director.
“I was always angling to try and direct it, because I direct 95 percent of our projects and I wanted to direct a feature,” Lyon said.
The completed film was recently sent to the Sundance Film Festival, but, Lyon said, because it is more of a niche film, it will most likely be picked up by a station such as ABC Family or the Hallmark Channel.
Lyon Films also shot an episode of Designing Spaces for The Learning Channel and recently wrapped-up a shooting project for Spirit Mountain Casino.
“We are closing in on 50 commercials, and we have a niche for doing political spots,” Lyon said.
Both have had to juggle a film company and teaching along with family life and being fathers.
“It’s a balance; I mean, one of the reasons I didn’t come out to the company as soon as Devon did is because I had two kids,” Curry said. Finding that balance is not always easy.
“It’s really tough and it’s a constant struggle,” Lyon said. “I’m always trying to dial myself back, especially because my daughter is only 20 months old.”
While it is a demanding profession, both said they find it interesting and enjoy what they are doing.
“We fundamentally like what we do; we really do enjoy communication because, really, when you distill down what we do, it is just communicating through different methods,” Lyon said.
Both also said their intellectual curiosity drives them in production and teaching realms.
“Shooting the Spirit Mountain Casino floor at 2 a.m., it’s just fun stuff,” Lyon said. “It’s corporate, but who cares? I’d rather be doing this than pressing steel in Detroit or, for that matter,
practicing law.”
As Linfield alumni, Curry and Lyon offer current students advice worth heeding.
“When you’re first out of school is one of the best times to try to do whatever it is your dream is to do,” Curry said.
He also said when you take risks in your 20s, you have a lot less to lose than when you are 40-years-old. Lyon agrees that taking risks is the way to go.
“[I] don’t ever have an answer to, ‘What do I want to be when I grow up?’ because I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, and I’m enjoying figuring it out,” Curry said.
As adjunct professors of visual communications, Curry and Lyon bring backgrounds from all areas of video production. Students get hands-on experience shooting various projects, using video cameras, lights and audio systems. Students are also learning the basics of Final Cut Pro.
“Just like anyone in the creative world, we’re always learning and we’re always becoming better ourselves.” Lyon said. “We by far don’t have all the answers and we sort of consider ourselves at the beginning of this career.”

Lizzie Martinez

While the Miller Fine Arts Gallery hosts monthly shows from local and regional artists, punctuated by publicized opening and closing receptions with featured artists, its lesser-known sister, the Linfield Student Gallery, quietly debuts work of talented new college artists every week.

The student gallery only holds receptions when the opening coincides with a main gallery opening and does not feature artist talks, but it is still a highly visible and essential part of the art department.

Also known as the studio gallery, the student gallery functions as a promoter of student works. It also brings in guest artists.

Senior art major Laura Johnson is curator of the student gallery this semester; senior Zach Mitlas is coordinator for the spring semester. Students alternate as curator and public outreach coordinator; in the spring, Johnson and Mitlas will switch roles.

“I look for quality work that is either engaging or aesthetically pleasing,” Johnson said. “In between shows, I put up class projects.”

The main gallery is between shows, but the student gallery just closed a show, “Propaganda,” and opened a show featuring the painting class’s work on pareidolias.

Pareidolias is a technique similar to a common drawing game where students paint an abstract figure then find a picture in the abstract form. Once an image is found, the student brings out the form by adding attributes or embellishing it to make it recognizable.

“It’s all about composition,” Johnson said.

Unlike the main gallery, where there is often a gap between shows, the student gallery is always displaying art.

“I take down a show, and I put up another one immediately,” Johnson said.

On the afternoon of Oct. 8, Johnson took down “Propaganda” and put up the show on pareidolias.

“Propaganda” displayed dozens of student projects from the Painting I class this semester. Johnson said it was an interesting show to curate because it gave her a lot of freedom to hang the paintings and arrange the space.

“The gallery is like art; its composition matters,” she said. “[The show is about] propaganda, therefore it should be hung like
propaganda.”

The show was displayed with paintings hung to look like posters on the sides of buildings, as propaganda might be displayed.

“[The show was] humorous and daring,” Johnson said. “It’s edgy, and I like that.”

For Johnson, who aspires to be a professional curator, the experience of working with art and artists is invaluable.

“I love being part of the process,” Johnson said.

As curator, Johnson contacts artists who would like to show their work in the studio gallery. She also arranges for showings of student works, such as art and visual culture classes, individual student artist shows and thesis projects.

To prepare for the show, Johnson decides how to display the art, considering the overall composition of the room, the flow of the pieces and the balance of the art. Then she goes to work using hammer and nails or putty to create an extraordinary effect.

The next show debuts Nov. 15 in conjunction with the main gallery opening reception for .meta. Guest artist Diane Lou, wife of Nils Lou, professor of art and visual culture, will debut her mixed media show.

The studio gallery is located in the Miller Fine Arts Building. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5 p.m.

Brianne Ries

The power of music, awkwardness and witty one-liners drive viewers of “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” on a crazy ride through the unpredictable streets of New York.

A film that could have easily turned into another boy-meets-girl-and-they-fall-in-love plot is filled with twists and laughs that keep audiences on their toes.

Meet Nick, played by Michael Cera, a high school senior who has just been dumped by the perfectly petite Tris, played by Alexis Dzenia. All Nick wants to do is take a “personal health day” when his fellow band members crash his pity party enticing him to head to New York for the band’s performance. The bait: The possibility of catching a secret show by Nick’s favorite band, the Fluffy Bunnies.

Meet Norah, played by Kat Dennings, also a senior, who goes to school with Tris. Her dad is the owner of a well-established record company, yet she is still down to earth and full of insecurities.  She’s never met Nick before, but is known for dumpster-diving for CD mixes he has made for Tris, post-break up. She heads to New York the same night to try and locate the secret Fluffy Bunnies concert.

When Nick and Norah haphazardly meet in a bar, Norah asks Nick to be her boyfriend for five minutes to evade Tris’ persecution and mockery. Little does Norah know when she kisses him that it is Tris’ Nick, who is still a wreck after
the breakup.

A bizarre night ensues, with Nick’s band losing Norah’s tipsy best friend Caroline, played by Ari Graynor, and Tris stalking the “couple” trying to prove she still has control of Nick. Members of the Jerk Offs, Nick’s band, also try to convince Norah that she
is the one for Nick, calling her their “hetero-heroine” for trying to erase Tris from his life. Nick and Norah may be musical soulmates, but only time will tell if there is something more brewing beneath the conflicts and mishaps of one crazy night.

From a rather disgusting moment involving a piece of gum (I will leave it at gum and a toilet full of vomit and let you put the pieces together) to a zany bar scene with transvestites in drag singing Christmas classics, the film is a perfect blend of what-were-they-thinking and this-is-completely-genius.

Several of the more hilarious moments occur when Nick and Norah are confined to Nick’s tiny, unreliable Yugo, a car that has definitely seen better days. Their first ride together in the car captures the pure awkwardness that is carried throughout the film. As much as it makes you cringe in your seat, it is honest, something that is lacking in most romantic comedies.

The characters act far more mature than most high school seniors, which is one of the only unbelievable aspects of the film. Also, the fact that there is absolutely no traffic on the streets of New York City on a Friday night is slightly suspicious. Otherwise the film highlights the highs and lows of being an adolescent in love and confused.

Aside from Cera, who has played lead roles in films such as “Juno” and “Super Bad,” the cast is full of fresh faces that bring
a new and welcome edge to the movie screen.

Based on the novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, it’s an excellent screenplay and a great feel-good movie that is true
to the realities we all face.

“Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” may be a mouthful to say, but it
is the perfect mix of comedy, romance and drama and has an awesome soundtrack.