Rating 5/10
I’ll be honest. I didn’t get the title. I originally thought it was about the 1990s grunge rock band fronted by Kurt Cobain. Nope. Not even close.
For the uninitiated (that includes me), Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol are the duo behind a cult Canadian comedy series. They portray semi-fictionalized versions of themselves: two perpetually hapless musicians convinced they’re on the verge of greatness. A familiarity with their schtick will help.
Longtime friends Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol have been chasing a dream that has stubbornly refused to materialize. They want to appear at the Rivoli, a live performance venue in Toronto. Their name, Nirvanna the Band, is intentionally misleading. It’s close enough to evoke the iconic band, but slightly misspelled to signal a joke. Matt indulges in spoken-word pieces that feel improvised, while Jay dutifully accompanies his absurdism on piano. Nearly two decades after forming their indie music group, they have yet to book a show. That’s not funny. It’s just sad. Their latest wildly impractical idea is to skydive off the CN Tower into a Blue Jays game at the SkyDome. The downtown Toronto stadium has a retractable roof, and the stunt is meant to generate enough buzz to get the band a gig.
Matt is committed to the idea. He thrives on the belief that success will come through some grand, improbable gesture. Jay, on the other hand, is growing tired of the endless failure. I sided with him. He wants something tangible: an audience or a career. That incompatibility turns into resentment.
The narrative adopts a hybrid style that blends a scripted story with pranks. These include real-world interactions with unsuspecting people. Those bits recall Borat or Jackass: The Movie, but the setups here are far more polite and, therefore, less funny. A scene at a hardware store, where they try to acquire materials for their illegal stunt from a bewildered employee, elicited a light chuckle from me.
Later, the plot pivots into a derivative knockoff of an 80s classic. Matt retrofits their rundown RV into a makeshift time machine, like the DeLorean from Back to the Future. Somehow, a long-defunct novelty drink called Orbitz (only select Canadians may remember it) serves as the catalyst that sends them back to 2008. From there, the screenplay borrows heavily from the 1985 hit starring Michael J. Fox. The film cleverly incorporates material from their earlier web series, Nirvanna the Band the Show, using archival footage of their younger selves and weaving it into the present-day story. The effect is surprisingly seamless, with new material staged and shot to match the old, allowing the drama to present past and present versions of the duo within the same space.
Comedy is the most subjective of genres. What feels like inspired hilarity for some can be an irritation to others. Most of the jokes fell flat for me. A gag that Bill Cosby is hailed as “America’s Dad” in 2008 is mildly amusing. The duo continues to stumble through time-travel antics filtered through their signature incompetence. I found Matt to be a tiresome personality. Jay keeps getting held back by his buddy. However, Jay eventually follows a path where he achieves fame on his own. But then, in a series of developments too convoluted to unpack here, Jay ends up needing Matt after all.
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie wasn’t a box-office hit, but a modest win within its indie parameters. Critics adored this, so it may well develop into a cult film. I won’t be drinking the Kool-Aid. I kept patiently waiting for a laugh big enough to justify the buildup. It never came.
02-19-26