'Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie' review: Get this crew to the Rivoli for goodness sake

Courtesy of NEON

---

A friend recently described this movie to me as “Borat” meets “Back to the Future,” and honestly, that’s the exact chaotic headspace you should occupy before pressing play on Matt Johnson’s “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie.” Fresh off a rapturous SXSW debut and a buzzy pickup by NEON, the film builds on an almost 20 year running gag in which aspiring musicians Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol are perpetually trying to make it to a gig at the Rivoli. The only problem is they’re not really a band; the venue has no clue who they are, and the universe seems personally invested in making sure they never arrive.

For the uninitiated, me included, there are stretches where you may feel like you’ve walked into the middle of a long running inside joke. The film clearly assumes a level of affection and familiarity with the duo’s 2007 web series origins. Still, the central premise is undeniably funny: an endless series of increasingly unhinged schemes to get on stage, each one derailing into a new disaster just as success seems within reach. To stretch that premise to feature length, the film veers into absurdist sci-fi territory, as the pair accidentally transform their mobile home into a time machine, flux capacitor and all, sending them back to 2008. The temporal logic is gleefully nonsensical, including a pit stop at a movie theater screening “The Hangover,” (even though it didn’t come out until 2009) a gag that either lands as a sly wink or an eye roll depending on your tolerance for chaos. 

Johnson, coming off the scrappy and surprisingly polished “BlackBerry,” brings a more confident filmmaking hand this time around. The movie still thrives on low fi energy, but the pacing is sharper and the comic setups more deliberate. Some of the hidden camera pranks, like one inside a department store, are genuinely hilarious, balancing cringe with audacity, and a jaw dropping sequence involving the Rogers Centre delivers one of the film’s biggest and most impressive surprises without sacrificing its DIY spirit.

The duo’s greatest strength remains their willingness to be the butt of their own joke. They fully commit to living inside their strange little universe, blurring the line between performance and reality to the point where you’re never quite sure who is in on the bit. That ambiguity is part of the appeal but also a source of frustration. The mockumentary style can feel disorienting, especially during the time travel segments where it becomes nearly impossible to distinguish between actors and unsuspecting bystanders. When someone directly asks, “Are you Jay McCarrol?” It highlights just how thin the barrier between fiction and reality has become, sometimes to the film’s detriment.

That tonal and structural messiness ultimately makes for a viewing experience that can feel more exhausting than exhilarating. Hardcore fans will likely embrace the chaos and celebrate the expansion of the lore, but newcomers may struggle to fully connect without a deeper emotional or narrative anchor. The movie’s scrappy, anything goes ethos is both its biggest charm and its most limiting flaw. It revels in pushing boundaries, including a few cheeky flirtations with copyright law that earn easy laughs, but it occasionally mistakes randomness for momentum.

Even so, there’s something undeniably endearing about the duo’s commitment to their weird little dream. I may not be ready to dive headfirst into the fandom, but I came away with a newfound appreciation for their creativity, and the bizarre world they’ve built together. “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie” should delight longtime believers while leaving curious newcomers amused, confused, and maybe just a little bit charmed.

Grade: B- 

NIRVANNA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE is now playing in theaters.