SXSW 2025 Review: NIRVANNA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE, Matt & Jay Go Back to the Future!
A pair of lovable losers come up with a series of ridiculous schemes to get their band a gig at Toronto’s legendary nightclub, The Rivoli in Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol’s Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie.
A feature length expansion of their 2017 Viceland TV series, co-creators Johnson and McCarrol continue to their seemingly futile quest to get on stage at the only club that matters in Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie. This time around, the scope is bigger, the FX are flashier, and the plans are dumber and more insane than ever; but you’ll be cheering for their success harder than ever as a few minor twists and turns in time send them hurtling off in directions neither could have ever imagined.
Their latest plan involves scaling the CN tower, breaking up a Toronto Blue Jays afternoon game, and blind announcing a show at the Rivoli that same night that hasn’t been booked yet. It is fool proof. However, when utterly predictable snafus snatch away their victory, Matt and Jay find themselves at odds. Jay has grown more than a little tired after seventeen years of failure, and Matt feels that his partner’s passion is on the wane, and it frustrates him.
Then, when Matt unexpectedly stumbles across the secret of time travel – cue Back to the Future theme, a running gag throughout the film – a whole new world of possibilities opens up, but will they use their new discovery for benevolently, or will they fall apart all over again? Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie is a testament to the power of friendship, the power of music, and, yes, the power of love.
Partially comprised of footage shot as far back as 2006 with modern day Matt & Jay inserts, Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie is a complex marvel of low-budget ingenuity. Having been the recipient of a Canadian film grant without ever having to pitch a story, Matt & Jay just started riffing, which leads to an enjoyably loose atmosphere that is part scripted, part insanely Canadian man-on-the-street insanity.
The pair breach CN tower security with obviously ulterior motives, discuss blatantly illegal uses for wire cutters with a real-life hardware store employee, and gatecrash a media firestorm at Drake’s Toronto home, all in the name of lunatic level gags. It’s a delight to watch, made all the more exciting by its illicit nature.
Newcomers to Nirvanna The Band The Show need not worry about being left behind, the story – while a long time coming – is perfectly self-contained. Though the general impetus behind Matt & Jay’s crazy misadventures is the same as the series, the film plays beautifully to virgin viewers. One of the funniest and most charming movies of this year’s SXSW, Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie has future midnight classic written all over it. A laugh riot with a distinctively Canadian sensibility – many of these public gags might have ended with a beatdown in a major US city – there’s something sweet about the purity of Matt & Jay’s goals. It’s a sincerity that audiences long for – as evidenced by RRR’s runaway success – and Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie delivers.
