Peter Sollett's 2002 film, Raising Victor Vargas, remains among the most pointed, poignant and joyful films about teen love. Sollett can only retrace those footsteps in this far weaker movie about a boy (Michael Cera), a girl (Kat Dennings) and their friends, who cruise the streets of New York in search of the latest, greatest, hippest band. From its indier-than-thou soundtrack — Vampire Weekend, Bishop Allen, Band of Horses — to its split-second hipster cameos (Devendra Banhart, Seth Meyers, John Cho, Kevin Corrigan), this after-hours romantic comedy plays like something crafted in a lab by 54-year-old hucksters trying to sell shit to the kids under the cheerless guise of "alternative."
