The lifelong friends still prove that the sky is truly the limit in this downright brilliant movie. Yet, as Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie’s poster encourages, there’s plenty of room to dream bigger. 

It’s very rare that a film will make you want to run out into the streets to sing Canada’s praises, but this one does. Three years after Matt Johnson wrote and directed BlackBerry, he used an upgraded budget to his full advantage in this zany comedy about two friends trying to become rockstars. 

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is an elevated version of the mockumentary show that starred Johnson and Jay McCarrol as best buds who have one goal: to perform at a venue called the Rivoli. In this movie, the two are still hoping to achieve that, but McCarrol is feeling disillusioned and increasingly irritated with Johnson’s schemes. 

After the latter hatches a plan to time travel back to 2008 to gain notoriety, he actually manages to succeed, but the pair’s tensions only grow. McCarrol reveals he planned to play a solo show, which angers Johnson’s character, leading to a rift in the timeline that impacts their lives in the present-day. Without giving too much away to the rollercoaster plot, things turn out to not be exactly how they hoped it would be, but friendship prevails in the end.

Meanwhile, Johnson has built one of the most fascinating careers over the past few years. He turned a film about a cell phone’s origins into a chaotic drama, which swept the Canadian Screen Awards and featured Glenn Howerton delivering the impeccable Waterloo vampires line. He then stepped back into acting in 2024’s Matt & Mara from director Kazik Radwanski, an underrated standout of the past few years. Now, he’s found himself juggling both roles again to craft one of the best films of the year. 

His direction in Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie feels effortless while still clearly maintaining a level of intense precision. Throughout the film, there’s times where you wonder, ‘How the hell did they pull this off?’ and the characters feel the same way. A creative fourth-wall break finds him addressing the audience directly, pointing out that they’re lucky if they’re seeing in theaters due to copyright hoops. 

One of the most shocking parts of the whole film is their scenes atop Toronto’s CN Tower, where they devised a plan to skydive off of it with wirecutters, and somehow managed to film the moment. There were seemingly no permits and they got no permission, but did it anyway.

The film seems to be filled with even more of these hoops, from the constant Back to the Future nods to McCarrol embracing his solo rockstar career alongside famous talk show hosts — who may or may not be surprised to see themselves in this film. It’s also chock-full of jokes, between physical comedy moments and subtle lines creatively woven into the script, which McCarrol and Johnson co-wrote, that had the whole audience during AMC’s Mystery Movie night laughing the whole time. 

As Johnson and McCarrol play fictionalized versions of themselves, you also start to wonder where their real personalities intersect. It’s a type of dedicated performance art in a sense that I’ve thought a lot about over the past few years, given comedians like Nathan Fielder and James Acaster lean into public personas that they commit to non-stop. Granted, Johnson isn’t always bouncing off-the-walls with ideas like his character in the film, but tends to bring that same frenzied creative energy to a lot of projects. 

The lifelong friends still prove that the sky is truly the limit in this downright brilliant movie. Yet, as Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie‘s poster encourages, there’s plenty of room to dream bigger. 

Grade: A

Oscars Prospects:
Likely: None
Should be Considered: None

Where to Watch: In Select Theaters