Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Matt Johnson
Written by	Matt Johnson[1] Jay McCarrol[1]
Based on	Nirvana the Band the Show and Nirvanna the Band the Show by Matt Johnson Jay McCarrol
Produced by	Matthew Miller[1] Matt Greyson[1]
Starring	Matt Johnson Jay McCarrol Jared Raab
Cinematography	Jared Raab[1]
Edited by	Curt Lobb[1] Robert Upchurch[1]
Music by	Jay McCarrol[1]
Production companies	Zapruder Films Telefilm Canada Crave
Distributed by	Elevation Pictures[2]
Release dates	March 9, 2025 (2025-03-09) (SXSW) February 13, 2026 (2026-02-13) (Canada)
Running time	100 minutes[3]
Country	Canada
Language	English
Budget	$2 million[4]
Box office	$1.5 million[5][6]

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is a 2025 Canadian time travel mockumentary-adventure film directed by Matt Johnson from a screenplay by Johnson and Jay McCarrol. The film stars Johnson and McCarrol as fictionalised versions of themselves in a band called "Nirvanna the Band" as they attempt to book a gig at the Rivoli, a bar and restaurant in Toronto, despite the fact that they have never actually written or recorded a single song, nor taken any steps to contact the Rivoli's management about booking a show.^[1] A new plan to play the Rivoli gone wrong accidentally sends Matt, Jay, and their friend/cameraman Jared back in time to the year 2008.^[7][8]

The film is based on Johnson and McCarrol's 2007–2009 web series Nirvana the Band the Show, as well as its 2017–2018 sequel television series Nirvanna the Band the Show.

In 2008, Toronto musicians Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol form "Nirvanna the Band" in the hopes of playing a show at the Rivoli. Seventeen years later, they have still not secured a show, with their schemes repeatedly failing. Matt proposes a publicity stunt to skydive off the CN Tower into the SkyDome during a Blue Jays game to promote the band. The attempt fails when the SkyDome roof closes during their dive, deepening Jay's frustrations and disillusionment with Matt's schemes. Jay secretly books an open mic slot in Ottawa, while Matt becomes convinced they can persuade the Rivoli by pretending to be time travelers. He modifies the RV with fake time travel equipment inspired by Back to the Future, but accidentally spills his last bottle of Orbitz on it. The next morning, Jay attempts to leave for Ottawa in the RV, learning too late Matt is still inside, and the two are unexpectedly transported to 2008.

Realizing that the Orbitz caused the time machine to work, they attempt to obtain another bottle from their younger selves’ apartment. Matt and Jay narrowly avoid being discovered, and an interaction between the younger Jay and the older Matt makes the older Jay reconsider leaving the band. He confesses to his initial plan to go solo, so a hurt Matt alters their 2008 selves' plans to instruct their younger selves not to play the Rivoli. They return to 2025, where Jay has become an extremely successful musician, while Matt is a drummer in a Jay McCarrol cover band. Matt confronts Jay at a concert, but Jay denies having any knowledge of the time machine. Afterwards, Jay sneaks out and smashes the last bottle of Orbitz.

Without Matt, Jay finds celebrity life hollow and lonely. In an attempt to make friends with his new band, he accidentally shoots and kills one of them. Now a fugitive, Jay returns to Matt, still claiming to be the alternate version of himself. He offers to help repair the timeline, secretly intending only to reverse the events of the scandal. Without Orbitz, Matt recalls that lightning struck the CN Tower the night their skydiving plan failed. They attempt to power the RV's time circuits using a cable stretched from the top of the CN Tower connected to a power box at an intersection. As the authorities pursue Jay, the cable disconnects from the top of the tower, forcing Matt to reconnect it. With the cable too short to connect to the power box, Matt ultimately completes the circuit using his body, sacrificing himself to power the time machine.

Jay, seeing Matt's sacrifice, travels back to 2008, and alters Matt's previous message to encourage their younger selves to play the Rivoli. In the present, Matt once again proposes the skydiving plan, unaware of the previous timeline's events. Jay suggests beginning the plan earlier to avoid complications.

• Matt Johnson as Matt
• Jay McCarrol as Jay
• Jared Raab as Jared
• Ben Petrie as Ben
• Ethan Eng as Ethan
• Maddy Wilde as Maddy
• Roz Weston as Roz
• Anthony Fantano as himself
• Marcia MacMillan as herself

In May 2023, it was reported that Matt Johnson was returning to the series Nirvanna the Band the Show to make a film.^[9] The series featured on Viceland for two seasons in 2017 and 2018, continuing on CBC in 2019.^[10]

In October 2023, Johnson told the Empire Magazine Podcast that he had initially planned to film in the UK but that filming had instead got underway in the United States.^[11] Johnson was quoted as saying that the success of the 2023 film BlackBerry had helped the project secure funding from Telefilm.^[12][13] In January 2025, the film was announced to be titled Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie.^[1][14][15]

A third season of the television show was filmed and partially edited but never released, as Viceland Canada shut down as a network before the season could be finished. Zapruder Films purchased the rights to the show, intending to finish and release the third season after the release of the feature film.^[16]

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie was shot over the course of over 200 days, with a crew of between four and eight people.^[4] The scenes involving the CN Tower were filmed without permits.^[4] In an interview with Vulture, Johnson spoke about the introductory CN Tower sequence: "As you're watching Jay and I come out onto [the ledge of] the tower, it's not immediately apparent that the camera is not controlled by us. It's a GoPro on the head of a tour guide who had never met us before. We're getting this guy to look and move exactly where we need him to in order to create the beats of that sequence without him even realizing he's doing it, with the real crazy trick being that we leave with the footage."^[17]

A stunt involving a trolley was filmed on the same day as a Taylor Swift concert in Toronto, part of the singer-songwriter's Eras Tour.^[17] Johnson stated, "When we're doing things in public, it's not so much that we might get arrested, it's more about the efficiency of trying to shoot something that complicated without permits and very quickly. Planning it the same day as a Taylor Swift concert in Toronto means that there's so much chaos in the city that whatever we're doing is not going to compare."^[17]

In May 2024, amid the then-escalating Drake–Kendrick Lamar feud, a shooting took place at the Bridle Path mansion of musician Drake; upon hearing the news of the shooting, the film crew went to the scene, resulting in news footage of Johnson and McCarrol shown running away from the residence, which is recontextualized in the film as McCarrol's mansion.^[4]

On March 9, 2025, the film premiered at the 2025 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival.^[15][18][1] Later that month, Neon acquired United States distribution rights to the film.^[19]

The film had its Canadian premiere in the Midnight Madness program at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival,^[20] where it was the winner of the People's Choice Award, Midnight Madness.^[21]

The film had a limited release on February 13, 2026. It opened on 365 screens and was projected to make $1.4 million for the 4-day frame.^[22]

United States distributor Neon released a poster for the film on January 22, 2026 that parodies a poster created for the IMAX release of Marty Supreme (2025). The parody poster was released the same day as the official poster, with Johnson and McCarrol saying in a Reddit AMA that the idea came after Marty Supreme's distributor, A24, accidentally CC'd the duo an email containing the poster which inspired the decision to make a parody. It was originally meant to release at the exact same time as the official one, but this did not come to fruition due to differences in time zones.^[23]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of 70 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Combining slyly skillful filmmaking with gut-busting laughs, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie will be pure heaven for fans of the series while making happy converts of the uninitiated."^[24] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[25]

Rachel Ho of Exclaim! wrote that "Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is quintessential Canadiana — made by Canadians, for Canadians. In a time when our country feels more divided than ever, Johnson offers us a reminder: although flawed in a multitude of ways, just like Matt and Jay, our potential as a nation remains. The answer to Canada's problems isn't going back to the good ol' days; it's standing on guard for thee today — or at least standing on guard at a street corner when a stranger asks you to watch over an electrical box that they're clearly misusing."^[26]

For That Shelf, Courtney Small wrote that "for all its seemingly scattered ideas, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is rather meticulous in its construction. It works quite well as a time-travel film, on par with recent time spanning comedies such as Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, getting plenty of milage out of conventional tropes including attempting to avoid their younger selves, and as a pop culture driven comedy."^[27]

The film was named to the Toronto International Film Festival's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list for 2025.^[28]

At the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, the film won the People's Choice Award: Midnight Madness.^[29] The film was shortlisted for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2025.^[30]

• Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie at IMDb