Somehow in our endless age of reboots, remakes, sequels, prequels, and legacy sequels, there’s still a bit of creativity floating around Hollywood. Well, not necessarily Hollywood… but somewhere slightly more northern. After years of skirting the fair-use legal loopholes, writer/director Matt Johnson (“Operation Avalanche,” “Blackberry”) has returned to the webseries/television show that made him and his longtime friend and co-writer Jay McCarroll Canadian household names. This is “Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie.”
The film follows Johnson and McCarroll playing fictionalized versions of themselves, living in Toronto and attempting to fulfill their lifelong dream: playing a show at the Rivoli bar in downtown Toronto, despite never having written a song or even rehearsed ever before. This plan comes to a head when Matt decides to turn their RV into a time machine to trick the Rivoli into believing that they are from the future with a message to allow them to perform a show to prevent the end of the world. However, things take a turn after he accidentally creates a working time machine, sending the pair back to the ancient times of 2008.
If fictional Johnson and McCarroll are always in search of a way to perform, then real Johnson and McCarroll are always in search of a way to entertain. From the very first moment, “NTBTSTM” is constantly throwing bizarre bits and humor the viewers way in an attempt to make them laugh by any means. It’s a delirious sense of humor that will exhaust some, but it never stops feeling earnest the entire time. There’s even an ingenious blending of the original webseries version’s old footage that makes it seem as though this film was planned out over fifteen years prior to make it all work.
Even better though is the film’s use of real life situations. Like “Borat” and other real life films of that ilk, much of the movie is spent watching this story play out in the midst of locations and real people Johnson and McCarroll didn’t get permission from. It means the bizarre nature of their antics not only gets an added dash of realism from these reactions, but it serves as a meta layer of humor on top of everything else. What was faked? What was real? Did McCarroll really end up getting chased by the cops? Who knows? This pair made a movie based on their TV show about a band that doesn’t make music that doesn’t require you to watch the TV show. It’s as if the concept of the movie existing is a joke as well.
The 2008 time period also allows Johnson to flex some truly impressive behind the scenes fair-use muscle. For those unaware, fair-use is a legal doctrine that allows a filmmaker to utilize a piece of copyrighted work, such as film clips, music, images, etc., so long as it is required to tell the story they want to tell. So when movie Johnson rewatches “Back to the Future” on loop to prepare the RV, it’s allowed because it’s required to tell the story. This means that some of the film’s most outrageous reveals and moments feel both like tributes to our deeply pop-culture obsessed society and joyful rib-tickling bits at the expense of said society. For example, the way in which movie Johnson definitively realizes they are in 2008 is not only a genius utilization of fair-use, but one of the funniest movie moments of the year.
Oddly enough, beyond the odd real life prank humor and pop-culture shenanigans, what surprises the most is the heart beneath these antics. While it might be told with the sly smirk of a trickster, “NTBTSTM” is a film about friendship and what it means to be someone’s best friend. Johnson and McCarroll have been real life best friends for decades, and their banter and bickering comes across entirely authentic here. Even in the film's cheesiest lines and most saccharine moments, it feels deeply rooted in this pair’s real friendship. You’d almost be convinced Johnson wanted to make this movie just to keep hanging out with his best friend.
For those who are completely out of the loop on the antics of Johnson and McCarroll’s fictional selves, and there will be many, most of this likely sounds like the ramblings of a late night Adult Swim special rather than a feature length film. But Johnson and McCarroll are experts in their field of low-budget antics and manage to dance around even the tightest of restraints to turn this adventure into something special. They are Nirvanna The Band and this is one of the funniest movies of the year. 4.5/5
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