Special Event

Presented by the qathet film society

As one US reviewer wrote, lots of great things come out of Canada: William Shatner, Jim Carrey, the Barenaked Ladies, maple syrup, virtually every Sci-Fi Original TV series to come out of the 1990s. Add to that list the comic duo of Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol, the minds behind the web series, then sitcom Nirvanna the Band the Show, which styled them as a pair of dimwitted musicians with a curious musical act that largely consists of McCarrol plinking away on the piano while the giddy, manic Johnson improvises over top. Their greatest shot at fame, in their eyes, is booking a gig at the famed Rivoli music venue in Toronto, Canada; the main gag of the show, of course, was that they never thought to actually call the venue to try and secure a date. Instead, what we saw was a dizzying mix of Tom Green-style pseudo-real pranksterism, improvisation, and sight gags fitting the manchildren the pair both embodied and lampooned.

The show became a cult hit, but was quickly lost to time; luckily, 17 years into their journey, writer-director Johnson (who also gave us the underrated BlackBerry) returns with Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, a film not just about reviving a years-old comedy act for the big screen, nor an ode to the curious bonds we form and fracture among lifelong friends and collaborators, but a tribute to Toronto and the Canadian spirit. It’s also a contender for the funniest and most charming movie of the year.

What follows is just the start of how many “how did they pull this off?” moments, as we follow Matt and Jay guerrilla-style as they interact with everyone from unsuspecting hardware store employees (one reacts to their plan with a libertarian’s sense of freedom, mixed with humanist caution) to CN Tower security who think nothing of the parachutes on their backs and pliers on their person. “They’re for cutting pants.” What happens after that beggars belief and is best left to the imagination, but it sets the tone for the kind of whirlwind creativity Nirvanna gets up to in its brisk 100 minutes.

But the real meat of the story, in classic stunted-millennial fashion, involves a time-travel gambit inspired by a VHS tape of Back to the Future and the intervention of obscure Canadian beverage Orbitz (“A bolt of lightning in every bottle”), which inadvertently zaps our heroes back to 2008 and gives them the chance to explore what might have been. For Matt, it’s “what if we did it right from the beginning?” But for Jay, it’s “What was I doing wasting my life with this loser in the first place?

In the end, how cute one finds these guys treating the streets of Toronto like their personal playground will depend on the viewer’s point of view. It’s valid to question whether the world needs yet another nostalgia piece from two white guys in their late 30s and early 40s, even if those guys are making fun of millennial man-child culture. But Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie is so affable, so good-natured, so modest—just so gosh-darned charming—that it’s difficult not to crack at least a little bit of a smile while watching it.