Film Review: Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
Director: Matt Johnson
Zapruder Films, Telefilm Canada, Crave
In Theaters: 02.13.2026

To be honest, the only exposure I’ve had to Nirvanna the Band the Show was from its famous Wii update day scene. After having spent more time with the source material (the webseries, in particular), I can tell you that it’s more than worth your time — and you should watch it.

If you have any concerns that Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie will be unwatchable without the context of the original show, you will be fine. The only real context you need is from Back to the Future, and if you haven’t seen that, I’m sorry for your loss.

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is about Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol (played by themselves), a pair of best friends in a band called Nirvanna the Band — they’ve never heard of Nirvana. Jay scores Matt’s wild ramblings and gags, and they think it’s good enough to take it to the most important venue in all of Canada: The Rivoli. However, there’s a minor glitch: They cannot get a show booked. They spend their days coming up with schemes to make the Rivoli notice them, and their most recent scheme has them pretending to be from the future, only somehow, Johnson and McCarrol send themselves back in time to 2008.

You’ll get the impression from the trailer (as I did) that this is a movie version of a low-effort dramedy series akin to The Office, which is not the case. Not only is it much funnier than The Office, it’s insane in its scope: expensive visual gags, brilliant cinematography that somehow nails the emotional landing, Borat-like improv where Johnson and McCarrol perform crazy stunts in front of unpaid actors. Better yet, I have no clue how most of this movie was made. There’s just no way half of what these guys accomplished with their visual effects and budget is possible.

Johnson is the ultimate guerrilla filmmaker, filming in places where he has no permission to film and barely skirting copyright laws with hundreds of references to pop culture. His style is energetic and intoxicating in its ability to pull you into its own manufactured, bizarro universe, somehow sending Toronto back to 2008, with goths, billboards with the iPod silhouette campaign and people laughing at a slur in a movie theater (that’s actually how Johnson realizes it’s 2008).

The industry is saturated with slop. I think now, and maybe always, independent cinema needs to be treated as the golden standard. It’s important that Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie gets widespread theatrical releases, just like Mark Fischbach’s self-produced Iron Lung. Cinema should be for everyone, not just for studio nepo-babies and directors who act as a front for a studio boardroom. Art can only survive and prosper when it comes from the voices of individuals, from people with visions. Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie isn’t art in the sense that it’ll change your life; rather, it’s art because it’s coming from the mind of someone with a goal. Johnson and Jay McCarrol are super-creatives whose only intent is to make you laugh, yet somehow they nail the emotional impact that these revered characters deserve.

Reject art made for the purpose of making money. Reject art made by robots. Reject art that fails to make you feel anything at all. Support films made by people. —B. Allan Johnson

Read more film reviews by B. Allan Johnson:
Film Review: No Other Choice
Film Review: Sentimental Value