NIRVANA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE: Parody and Homage...Canadian Style

NIRVANA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE (Blu-ray)

2025 / 100 min

NEON/Decal Releasing

Review by Princess Pepper😽

Until this movie came along, I had no idea Nirvana the Band was even a thing. It was first a Canadian web series, followed by an actual TV show that ran for a couple of seasons. In both, Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol play a couple of guys obsessed with getting their band booked at the Rivoli, a famous Toronto bar. They also use the set-up to parody various aspects of popular culture.

Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie expands the same concept into a feature length film, which is sure to please fans. But even if you’ve never heard of these guys, Johnson and McCarrol have the good sense to make it accessible to newcomers. No prior knowledge is required, so if nothing else, these guys could teach the good folks at Disney a thing or two about continuing a TV property on the big screen.

Storywise, the film is both a parody and homage to Back to the Future. For their next publicity stunt, Matt decks out the inside of their RV like the time machine from the movie. But when it surprisingly works, they end up back in 2008. While in the past, they have a heated argument and go their separate ways. Upon returning to the present, however, Jay has since become a rock star, while Matt struggles in a Jay McCarrol tribute band, the result of having altered the past.

"Wireless? Not in my lifetime!"

Complications and plot twists ensue, of course, some of them pretty clever spins on sequences from BTTF. But as a comedy with largely improvised dialogue, it’s kind of a mixed bag. While it’s occasionally very funny, Johnson’s character is really abrasive, his personality, dialogue and actions a little cringeworthy, which is probably intentional. The film is done in cinéma vérité style (including camera operators as characters) and many of the bystanders they encounter are unaware they’re in a movie, so their reactions to him are real.

But even if Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie is seldom laugh-out-loud funny, the story is fun, as are many of its satiric elements. And while Matt’s character isn’t someone I’d want to hang out with any longer than I have to, the friendship between him and Jay is ultimately charming enough that we’re invested in both of them. 

EXTRA KIBBLES

FIRST EPISODE OF THE ORIGINAL SHOW

FEATURETTES - Back to 2008; Running Cable.

ALTERNATE OPENING, DELETED SCENE, POST CREDIT SCENES, OUTTAKES

HOME MOVIES

2 AUDIO COMMENTARIES - 1) By Matt Johnson & Jay McCarrol; 2) By Matt Johnson & post-production team.

DVD COPY