Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie

An unexpectedly funny and delightfully silly low-budget Canadian comedy that’s also an ode to friendship, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (which, in case you didn’t know, has nothing to do with the 90s grunge band Nirvana) is a hidden gem well worth seeking out.

Premise: In 2008, Matt (Matt Johnson) and Jay (Jay McCarrol) form ‘Nirvanna the Band” and set themselves the goal of booking a gig at the Rivoli, a local Toronto bar.  Seventeen years later, the friends still haven’t played a show at the Rivoli, and Matt is coming up with increasingly desperate plans for publicity stunts to raise their profile – the latest of which has some very unforeseen repercussions that result in the duo accidentally travelling back in time…

Review:

Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol are a Toronto-based comedy duo who have been playing fictionalised versions of themselves as ‘Nirvanna the Band’ since 2007, first in a mocumentary webseries, then in a 2016 TV show (Nirvanna the Band the Show), and now in this feature-length spinoff Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie.  Throughout the two decades they’ve been performing these characters, Matt and Jay’s only ambition has been to play a gig at their local bar, the Rivoli, in Toronto – an ambition so modest that it gives their twenty-year quest a comedically mythic status.

I mention all of this just as background context (particularly for the film’s bizarre title), but I didn’t know any of this going into the film – and you really don’t need to know any of this background to get caught up in the delightfully silly spirit of this heightened mocumentary.  But why this is relevant is because Matt and Jay have hundreds of hours of unused footage they recorded as these characters from as far back as 2008 – which now gives them an opportunity to produce one of the most heartwarming time-travel stories since, well, Back to the Future.

“…really comes alive once it starts riffing on time-travel tropes…”

This is a low-budget Canadian indie film, so there’s no really money for ‘de-aging’ CGI, make-up effects or other VFX.  Instead, the film opens with actual footage of Matt and Jay from 2008, as they try one of their early hairbrained schemes to book a gig at the Rivoli.  Cut to 17 years later, and an older (but no less enthusiastic) Matt is trying to convince an older (and increasingly jaded) Jay to join in Matt’s latest plan – a skydive off the Toronto CN Tower into a Blue Jays baseball game where they will announce (or more accurately, manifest) their forthcoming gig at the Rivoli.

Needless to say, that plan ends up being as successful as all of the other plans over the last 17 years – but the way in which it unfolds (filmed with a combination of scripted scenes and guerrilla-style improvised interactions with unsuspecting members of the public) gives you a taste of the absurdist humour that’s to come.  But the first act really is just the set up for what’s to come – and when Matt’s next plan involves the duo pretending to be time-travellers from the future, he unintentionally sets in motion a series of events that transport them back to 2008.

“…a surprisingly touching & bittersweet ode to friendship…”

I don’t want to say much more about the plot that than – and some could even say that mentioning the time-travel plot line is a spoiler … but I think you need to know about the time-travel element, as that’s really what elevates this movie onto a whole other level.  It’s amusing up until that point – but it really comes alive once it starts riffing on time-travel tropes, and the way in which the movie’s able to cut actual footage of 2008-era Matt and Jay into the time-travel story gives it a verisimilitude that money simply can’t buy.

But as well as being really funny (and displaying an obvious love for movies like Back to the Future), Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is also a surprisingly touching and bittersweet ode to friendship, and all the complications that involves.  Again, the fact that we see actual footage of Matt and Jay from 2008, relatively young and full of hope for the future, means that their 2025-era friendship carries with it a real weight.  When Jay grows increasingly jaded about Matt’s ineffective schemes, his dilemma between staying with his lifelong friend or cutting ties and going it alone feels like a genuine one, rather than a plot contrivance.

“…my favourite cinematic hidden gem of the year…”

The technical expertise that was needed to not only capture some of these scenes on a low-budget guerrilla-style shoot (often without filming permits), but to also seamlessly work in unused raw footage from 2008-era unused sketches cannot be underestimated … and yet, it all is forgotten while you’re watching the film, because you’re wrapped up in the moment and it all seems so real.

As with all comedies, this won’t be for everyone, especially if you dislike ‘silly’ comedies – but I’d really urge you to give this a go.  I’ll admit I wasn’t entirely convinced during the first act (as I found the CN Tower scenes gently amusing rather than out-and-out funny), but I’m glad I stuck with it, because after the time-travel storyline kicked in, this has become perhaps my favourite cinematic hidden gem of the year.