Almost 20 years into their fruitless quest to book their band a gig at a hallowed Toronto venue, Matt (writer-director Matt Johnson) and Jay (writer-composer Jay McCarrol) decide it’s time to pull out all the stops. But after a publicity stunt parachuting from the CN Tower goes spectacularly awry, a freak accident involving Orbitz (the long-discontinued Canadian soft drink) sends them hurtling back in time to 2008 — when it all began. Displaced in the past, these serial bumblers inadvertently wreak havoc on the timeline, dramatically (and hilariously) rewriting their futures.
Overflowing with pop culture references, copyright violations, wild gags, and inspired set pieces, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is gloriously ridiculous, endlessly clever, and riotously entertaining. This one is for all the deranged dreamers out there.
Audience Award: Midnighter, SXSW 2025
Media Partner
Matt Johnson, Jay McCarrol
Canada
2025
English
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Adrian Love, Kate Parkes, Jared Raab
Producer
Matthew Miller, Matt Greyson
Screenwriter
Matt Johnson, Jay McCarrol
Cinematography
Jared Raab
Editor
Curt Lobb, Robert Upchurch
Production Design
Kerry Noonan
Original Music
Jay McCarrol
Matt Johnson
Filmography: The Dirties (2013); Operation Avalanche (2016); BlackBerry (2023)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Mistura
This foodie film from Peru tells the story of a newly single socialite reinventing herself — and the local cuisine — after her husband has left her for a younger woman. Along the way, she finds support from unexpected places...
The Company of Strangers
In this Canadian gem, seven elderly women find themselves stranded when their bus breaks down in the wilderness. With only their wits, memories and some roasted frogs' legs to sustain them, this remarkable group of strangers share their life stories.
GoodFellas
The ultimate crash and burn movie, Scorsese's exhilarating gangster film is infused with the excitement of fast cash, girls, guns and drugs. Yet this brazenly amoral movie also captures the brutality, betrayal, and spiritual void of the criminal world.
Reservoir Dogs
Quentin Tarantino announced himself to the world with this ingeniously fractured heist movie, carved into character-centric chapters, riffing breezily on pop culture, but counterpointing all this with blood-soaked intensity.
Madonna: Truth or Dare
A year in the life of Madonna at the height of her fame, touring Blonde Ambition through 1990. There's concert footage, but the movie is also daringly truthful about life behind the scenes — not that Madonna is every really off-stage.