Nirvanna The Band took their biggest plan back to 2008
- Landen Doyle
- Aug 7
- 4 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
No, not that Nirvana; there is no Kurt Cobain, there is no Nevermind, and thanks to a lawyer and the addition of one extra “n”, this is Nirvanna the Band. Matt and Jay; two best friends who have spent nearly twenty years together trying to get a show at the Rivoli in Toronto, Canada by doing anything other than simply asking to play..
While most bands would write and rehearse their music with the intention of performing for an audience, Matt and Jay have no real songs and no fans to speak of. What they do have however, is a dream to play the Rivoli, an endless supply of ridiculous plans, and a willingness to do anything to get that show including jumping off of the CN Tower.
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie finally gives their ridiculous antics the blockbuster treatment. It has time travel, public disturbance, and references to Back to the Future.
Same Friends, Bigger Movie
Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol began playing exaggerated versions of themselves on a homemade web series running between 2007 and 2009. It later became a two season show that aired on the now defunct viceland, carrying the charm of the web series onto television.
The show’s premise has always been relatively simple; Matt is overly confident about ideas that nobody has any right to be so confident about, and has a white board and a plan to prove it. While it may seem that Jay knows better, he sometimes reluctantly follows Matt through the course of each plan. They behave like two teenagers wandering through Toronto with access to a camera crew and adult money.
In this movie, another needlessly dangerous attempt to promote their “upcoming” show at the Rivoli goes wrong and sends them back to 2008 using a bottle of Orbitz. Remember those?
CBL Magazine would like to inform the reader that the writer of this article does NOT remember Orbitz, as it was discontinued in 1999.
Honestly, time travel makes perfect sense as a natural climax for this series to reach. Matt and Jay have always treated their smaller issues like the plots of massive Hollywood movies.
The web series is a marvel in guerilla film making. Matt and Jay would pull the most elaborate and unpermitted stunts in public areas and gather real reactions from the unsuspecting people around them who had no idea they were players in a comedy bit. Most comedies create chaos on set. This one drops Matt and Jay into Toronto and hopes they survive. (Toronto, not them.) When this concept moved to a two season TV show in 2017, the budget grew, but the ethos stayed intact. Every episode would be centered around a ridiculously convoluted plan to get a show at the Rivoli.
Actually Going back to 2008
One of the more interesting parts of this film is that they do not simply cover a street in old posters and call it 2008. Johnson and McCarrol had hours of real footage left over from the original run of the web series. Their editors dug through it and found ways for Matt and Jay in the present day, to interact with their younger selves. This is one of the most mind boggling effects that I have ever seen in a movie, and it is pulled off MASTERFULLY.
That editing is what makes the film feel so grand; one minute it resembles a home video, the next, they are pulling off a time travel sequence more effectively than other movies could with a far greater budget. It's clearly made with immense care, even when everyone on screen appears to be one move away from being arrested.
The movie is not a gentle nod or homage to back to the future; It grabs the movie's structure, music, and a lot of recognizable ideas, and changes them to drive its own story.The filmmakers worked with a lawyer to make sure the material fell under parody under fair use.
Ridiculous, but not empty.
Under all the movie references and public shenanigans, at its core, this is a story about two best friends who are terrified of growing apart.
You do not need to have watched the web series or TV show first. Within the first few minutes of the film you get a recap of the opening of the web series and everything important is clear. Matt has a plan, Jay hates the plan and both of them are already doing the plan.
That emotional core of the movie is what keeps it from becoming a long collection of bits and old clips. Matt and Jay aren't lovable despite being kind of stupid; they're lovable because their stupidity is something that they built together. If their characters ever were to actually reach the goal they're reaching for, they might lose the reason they keep hanging out.
The film moves fast, and for me, that energy is the entire appeal. This is the type of comedy I think movie goers have been missing; creative, genuinely surprising, and far more carefully made than you'd think.
When Nirvanna the Band the Show hit the big screen it became more like itself. It's louder, riskier, and much more ambitious, but at the end of the day Matt and Jay are still chasing the same tiny show.
They may not be an actual band, but in the process they created one of the funniest and most inventive comedies in recent memory.
Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol still continue to work together behind the scenes. Johnson's next film “Tony” opens in theaters August 7th, and covers a coming of age story starring Dominic Sessa as a 19 year old Anthony Bourdain. Johnson directed and co-wrote the film, while McCarrol composed the score.
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is now streaming on Hulu in the US, alongside both seasons of the TV series.
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