Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie

Matt (Matt Johnson) and Jay (Jay McCarrol) want to play a show at the Rivoli. They have everything worked out. The music. The intro. The dancing. The way the crowd will react. They even have a plan for how they’re going to get a booking there. When it doesn’t work out, they take it in their stride. There were always going to be a few bumps along the road to stardom, right? The next morning, Matt comes up with another plan.

Fans of TV series Nirvanna The Band The Show will be familiar with this format, but as is usual when skipping from the small to the big screen, the story here is scaled up. It focuses on what happens when Matt and Jay have been doing this for 17 years.

Beginning with a ridiculously dangerous plan to skydive from Toronto’s famous 553m tall CN Tower into the nearby sports stadium, the film sees these two best friends reach crisis point. Matt is as devoted to their mission as ever, planning to make a Back To The Future-style time machine so that they can pretend they’re time travellers from 2008 and get attention that way. Jay, however, noticed the state their apartment is in, the stacks of unpaid bills, the insects buzzing around, and finally loses heart. Secretly, he sneaks off and books a slot at an open mic night in Ottawa. He’s going to try going solo. When the two schemes intersect, however, and a secret ingredient is added to the mix, the time machine unexpectedly turns out to work, and they find themselves flung back to 2008, obliging them to try to find a means of escape without changing the future.

This is just the start of a series of events which swing wildly out of control. The underlying formula is a simple one but the chaos around it is managed magnificently so that you can never be sure what will happen next. Though sex and sexuality never come into it (beyond a brief reflection on the dating opportunities available to goths), it is at heart a romcom, with an intense love between the two central characters which they have never discussed and which becomes clear to Jay only when he realises what he stands to lose. No attempt is made to frame this in a neat way for others to understand, and no social expectations are built around it; it simply is what it is, but it drives the film even when it’s out of sight.

Added to this, and enriching the story throughout, is the pair’s deep love for the city of Toronto. The film – which won the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award at the 2025 Toronto Film Festival – is full of local in-jokes, such as our heroes’ instinctive need to offer a polite welcome to every tourist they meet, no matter how urgent their situation is at the time. There’s also a smattering of science fiction jokes, but in neither case are they essential to enjoying the film. It’s the script, the characters and Johnson’s manic energy that bring it to life, with McCarrol’s music, inspired by the original Back To The Future score, elevating the action and emotional beats. A fantastic ride from start to finish, it may very well deliver the most fun you’ll find in a cinema this year.

Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie screened as part of the Glasgow Film Festival.

Reviewed on: 01 Mar 2026