Directed by Matt Johnson
Canada | 2025 | Fiction | 100 min | English
Sponsored by TBD
Saturday, October 18 | 9:30 PM | FH
It’s 2008 and BFFs Matt (Matt Johnson, BlackBerry) and Jay (Jay McCarrol) have only one goal: for their ludicrously-named band, Nirvanna, to play a gig at local venue the Rivoli in Toronto. Flash forward 17 years. It’s 2025 and BFFs Matt and Jay, older but none the wiser, have only one goal: for their ludicrously-named band, still Nirvanna, to play a show at the Rivoli, which is going strong. What started out as a cult web series eventually became a Spike Jonze-produced TV series. Now, as the duo level up to the silver screen, they are raising the stakes. Adding a good-natured Canadian spirit to the buddy comedy tradition of Abbott and Costello et al., Johnson and McCarrol go for broke in Nirvanna the Movie. It feels like every loonie they could scare up was put in service of a preposterous gag. In their undying pursuit of that coveted gig, Matt hatches his most ambitious publicity stunt yet. Let’s just say it involves the CN Tower and leave it at that. When it goes sideways, he decides to turn their RV into a time machine—à la Back to the Future—so they can return to 2008 and stack the deck in their favor. With a little help from the novelty beverage Orbitz, it works! Like the crackerjack comedy it’s flagrantly infringing, Nirvanna the Movie reflects a culture that is desperately trying to wind back the clock. But underneath its slacker satire is a sweet portrait of lifelong friends having a blast together. That’s the power of love. ~OO