TL;DR – A wild, chaotic, Canadian ride from start to finish, where you will not know where the film will pivot to next.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie Review Introduction

There is one film this year that has been recommended by every single person who has watched it. I tried to catch it in cinemas, but the times never lined up. However, it is finally out on digital I have a roast cooking in the oven, and winter has hit so you want to be inside watching something wild. It is the perfect combination to see if my friends were right about this film or not.
  
So, to set the scene, 17 years after trying to play a gig by their band Nirvanna the Band at the Rivoli, Matt Johnson (Matt Johnson) and Jay McCarrol (Jay McCarrol) have finally come up with a plan to get the gig. It might involve jumping off the CN Tower to advertise their band to a baseball stadium, and they might not have told anyone about it, and no one at the CN Tower knows what is about to happen, or that they are filming a movie.

Guerilla Filming

Right from the start, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie makes the claim that this is going to be something very different. The opening of the film gives you the feeling that this was not oversold. The team trying to get through security at the CN Tower is one of the wildest sequences that I have seen on the big screen. Now, sure, the jump was not real, but you feel that everything else was just them flying by the seat of their pants. This is the sort of vibe that permeates the rest of the film. This sort of filming does give you an almost intimate fly-on-the-wall perspective of this pair going through a breakup that almost feels intrusive. You can’t help but look away out of shared embarrassment.    

Doing the Time Machine Plan

Just when you think you have a handle on the film, Nirvanna the Band the Show prepares to rip the rug out from right under your feet. I have never felt more profoundly uncomfortable by a cultural round-up of a time period I have lived through. More than that, just when you are starting to get your feet in this ridiculousness, they slap you upside the head with the fourth wall, and then you know that nothing is safe in this film. I don’t want to spoil too much, but how they sliced the footage together from two different sources was an editing dream. Seriously, the editor should win awards for this film for that sequence alone.     

It’s All a Bit Loose

Structurally, Nirvanna the Band the Show is a bit of an odd duck, and that is mainly due to all the different factors that went into its construction. Parts of the film are completely unsolicited conversations with random people, parts are semi-scripted out in public, parts are wild editing sequences with the past, and parts are heavily scripted sequences to move the plot along. While there is a clear emphasis on improvisation and being shifted by the random people they encounter, there are also some special effects and less-random encounters to help glue it all together. This could have been an absolute hodgepodge of a film, but some of the best editing in the business and two leads that obviously care for the project help bring it all together. Though, I will say that this is a film where it is worth watching it with a group to share in the chaos.      

Recommendation

In the end, do we recommend Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie? Well, I don’t think I have ever watched a film quite like this, where “will one of them get arrested in real life?” is a legitimate question throughout. There are some truly wild moments, but never in a way that mocked people. Much like how Jury Duty found a compassionate way to a prank show, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie found a way to make the unsuspecting mockumentary work.

Have you watched Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, we would recommend Hundreds of Beavers to you because it also understands the power of sheer and utter chaos to bring you into a wild, wild, world.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Feel free to share this review on social media and check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
Directed by – Matt Johnson
Written by – Matt Johnson & Jay McCarrol
Story by – Matt Johnson, Jay McCarrol, Jared Raab, Curt Lobb, Matthew Miller, Matt Greyson, Luca Tarantini, & Evan Morgan
Based on – Nirvana the Band the Show and Nirvanna the Band the Show by Matt Johnson & Jay McCarrol
Music by – Jay McCarrol
Cinematography by – Jared Raab
Edited by – Curt Lobb & Robert Upchurch
Production/Distribution Companies – Amazon Prime, Telefilm Canada, Ontario Creates, Zapruder Films, Neon, & Madman
Starring – Matt Johnson & Jay McCarrol
With – Ben Petrie, Ethan Eng, Michael Scott, Reid Janisse, Steve Hamelin, Luke Lalonde, Maddy Wilde, & Mitch Derosier
Rating – Australia: M; Canada: 14A; United States: R