Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie Review – Two goofballs looking for a concert look back over the years | film

WWith its sheer silliness and unexpectedly brilliant visual effects, this stunningly satirical thriller from Canadian comedian and director Matt Johnson will hook you in. But if, like me, you’re coming to this from outside the existing fanbase of his web and TV comedy series Nirvanna the Band the Show, you’ll need some time to catch up and acclimate to the gags and lo-fi klutz aesthetic. (Although, as I said, the downbeat indie vibe coexists deftly with some interesting digital tricks.)

Johnson had a big hit in 2023 with the BlackBerry, a once-vital and then tragically obsolete phone device. Now he and his writing partner Jay McCarroll bring us a morbid time-travel comedy inspired by Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future. But this comedy isn’t interested in BTTF’s Freudian observations about men’s relationships with women. In fact, women play no role in this. It’s more in the boyish, masculine spirit of Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in Wayne’s World, or Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

Matt and Jay are two fortysomething slackers from Toronto who, apparently without the need to make money from any kind of day labor, devote themselves to their awesome group called Nirvana. (The band’s most famous misspelling is…intentional? Accidental? Anyway, it’s part of their overall sense of loser blunder.) They’re always trying and failing to get a booking at the Rivoli, one of Toronto’s trendiest venues. Matt then talks to Jay about skydiving from the top of the city’s CN Tower as a publicity stunt that ends in chaos. His next idea is even weirder: install a fake time machine in their RV and claim it’s from 2008. But then the camper gets struck by lightning when their vehicle reaches a certain speed and… guess what? Their accidental stumble in 2008 opens a terrible psychological wound; Jay plans to dump Matt and reset himself with a solo career.

Why 2008? Good times or bad? There is no clear justification. It was the beginning of the Obama presidency, and also the time of the Great Crash, when Canada happened to congratulate itself on doing better than other economies. But whereas another type of movie might look for some satirical significance for adults, the joke here feels arbitrary, absurd, and crazy. You have to relax and go with it. And the strange conviction that Johnson and McCarroll bring to their lofty concept reminded me of Shane Carruth’s serious introductory film about time travel. If there’s a serious point in this movie it’s how quickly time flies as you try and fail to make it in the music business. But laughter is the most important.