February 24, 2026
FILM: NIRVANA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE
DIRECTED BY: MATT JOHNSON
STARRING: MATT JOHNSON, JAY MCCARROL, BEN PETRIE
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
I didn’t really know what to expect of Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie, from director Matt Johnson. I’d been hearing some good things from other Substack film writers and, frankly, I needed a comedy, so I decided to check it out this past weekend. I was the only person in the theater. Maybe 4:20 on a Saturday afternoon is not the time or an easy sell for a mockumentary style, time travel movie about two Canadian guys that many people don’t know in the U.S. (Yet, there was a line of many seemingly gay men ready to see Pillion when I got out.) It’s a shame because this is an inventive film that is a lot of fun and more complex than one might think.
Back in 2008 Matt Johnson and his creative partner Jay McCarrol started a web series which focused, I gather, on the two of them trying to get a gig at a Toronto night club called Rivoli. (It later became a TV series in 2016-2017.) For reasons that are never made clear, they called themselves “Nirvana the Band,” which is very curious since what they were doing had no relation to Kurt Cobain’s 90s grunge band. Jump ahead to 2025, after Johnson has directed other films including the great 2023 indie Blackberry and McCarrol has scored various television series, and the two are back at it with the same goal.
The film plays their relationship though like a case in arrested development. They’re both living in the same cluttered house they did 17 years earlier and still boast the dream. Well, at least Johnson does. McCarrol develops an idea for a crazy stunt in which they will dive off the CN Tower in Toronto directly into the Skydome stadium where the Blue Jays play. The scene in which this is attempted feels so viscerally real that I had to close my eyes as they stood on the tower’s edges and the wind strongly whipped around them. I felt like I was reluctantly there with them. Without spoiling anything, the dive doesn’t go exactly as planned and McCarrol decides to leave Johnson in search of his own dream of playing at a karaoke night hours away from Toronto.
The guys are clearly enamored with Robert Zemeckis’s 1985 film Back to the Future, which gets referenced to and shown in pieces several times throughout the movie. By a crazy set of circumstances, they both end up back in 2008 to the days when they made their web series. This allows them to observe their younger selves and even interact with them. It’s a very clever conceit that, while sometimes a bit confusing to logistically comprehend, makes for some very funny scenes.
Part of what the film explores is the age-old question of what happens if one could go back in time and change something? Will it affect their life in the present? There’s a parallel timeline that is presented when at least McCarrol’s trajectory in life has significantly changed. Generally, though, there’s also the question of whether we really change that much from the younger versions of ourselves.
All of this leads to a series of missteps and shenanigans that make for a truly entertaining film viewing experience. While some of the scenes feature acts and stunts that are way over the top, they guys are so committed to the experience that we have a great time going along with them for the ride.
Matt Johnson comes across as a big adult child with a naïve sense of ability and fame. His energy is infectious. McCarrol is a bit more low-key, and looking a bit like a younger Dustin Hoffman, possesses a level-headed charm. Both actors have also called the film a love letter to Toronto and hope that it spurs more interest in tourism. If it finds enough of an audience, I can see fans wanting to check out some of the sights featured in the film that get a lot of visual attention.
I think this film would have been even more fun if I’d seen it with a larger audience. I can imagine the laughs. Still, there is a lot to appreciate and enjoy within it that could make it one of the great cult films of this decade.
Nirvana the Band, the Show, the Movie is currently playing in limited theatrical release.
FILM: NIRVANA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE
DIRECTED BY: MATT JOHNSON
STARRING: MATT JOHNSON, JAY MCCARROL, BEN PETRIE
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
I didn’t really know what to expect of Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie, from director Matt Johnson. I’d been hearing some good things from other Substack film writers and, frankly, I needed a comedy, so I decided to check it out this past weekend. I was the only person in the theater. Maybe 4:20 on a Saturday afternoon is not the time or an easy sell for a mockumentary style, time travel movie about two Canadian guys that many people don’t know in the U.S. (Yet, there was a line of many seemingly gay men ready to see Pillion when I got out.) It’s a shame because this is an inventive film that is a lot of fun and more complex than one might think.
Back in 2008 Matt Johnson and his creative partner Jay McCarrol started a web series which focused, I gather, on the two of them trying to get a gig at a Toronto night club called Rivoli. (It later became a TV series in 2016-2017.) For reasons that are never made clear, they called themselves “Nirvana the Band,” which is very curious since what they were doing had no relation to Kurt Cobain’s 90s grunge band. Jump ahead to 2025, after Johnson has directed other films including the great 2023 indie Blackberry and McCarrol has scored various television series, and the two are back at it with the same goal.
The film plays their relationship though like a case in arrested development. They’re both living in the same cluttered house they did 17 years earlier and still boast the dream. Well, at least Johnson does. McCarrol develops an idea for a crazy stunt in which they will dive off the CN Tower in Toronto directly into the Skydome stadium where the Blue Jays play. The scene in which this is attempted feels so viscerally real that I had to close my eyes as they stood on the tower’s edges and the wind strongly whipped around them. I felt like I was reluctantly there with them. Without spoiling anything, the dive doesn’t go exactly as planned and McCarrol decides to leave Johnson in search of his own dream of playing at a karaoke night hours away from Toronto.
The guys are clearly enamored with Robert Zemeckis’s 1985 film Back to the Future, which gets referenced to and shown in pieces several times throughout the movie. By a crazy set of circumstances, they both end up back in 2008 to the days when they made their web series. This allows them to observe their younger selves and even interact with them. It’s a very clever conceit that, while sometimes a bit confusing to logistically comprehend, makes for some very funny scenes.
Part of what the film explores is the age-old question of what happens if one could go back in time and change something? Will it affect their life in the present? There’s a parallel timeline that is presented when at least McCarrol’s trajectory in life has significantly changed. Generally, though, there’s also the question of whether we really change that much from the younger versions of ourselves.
All of this leads to a series of missteps and shenanigans that make for a truly entertaining film viewing experience. While some of the scenes feature acts and stunts that are way over the top, they guys are so committed to the experience that we have a great time going along with them for the ride.
Matt Johnson comes across as a big adult child with a naïve sense of ability and fame. His energy is infectious. McCarrol is a bit more low-key, and looking a bit like a younger Dustin Hoffman, possesses a level-headed charm. Both actors have also called the film a love letter to Toronto and hope that it spurs more interest in tourism. If it finds enough of an audience, I can see fans wanting to check out some of the sights featured in the film that get a lot of visual attention.
I think this film would have been even more fun if I’d seen it with a larger audience. I can imagine the laughs. Still, there is a lot to appreciate and enjoy within it that could make it one of the great cult films of this decade.
Nirvana the Band, the Show, the Movie is currently playing in limited theatrical release.