I first met Matt Johnson serendipitously during the screening of his debut feature, 2013’s The Dirties at Fantastic Fest. I was sitting near the front chatting with this young guy about movies at the festival and what we liked, and the conversation led to the movie we were seated for. I said something along the lines of “I don’t know anything about this movie, I just wound up here” and how that’s one of the best parts of film festivals – pure discovery. When they called up the director to introduce the movie, much to my surprise it was my seat mate. What followed was a relatively harrowing movie with such a strong point of view that I couldn’t help be surprised came out of this talkative, nice Canadian. It was singular and felt like it only could’ve come from him.
I’ve followed Matt’s career since, culminating with BlackBerry, which is maybe the apex of the new niche subgenera of tech-company-rise (and fall?). It was his most straightforward movie but still contained all his humor and immediacy.
Enter mockumentary Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, based on Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol’s 2017 Canadian television series Nirvanna the Band the Show, based on the 2007 web series Nirvana the Band the Show. In all of these, Matt and Jay play fictionalized versions of themselves who want to make it in the music industry and specifically play a gig at The Rivoli (a local Toronto club). It seems like they aren’t content to work their way up through standard means, eschewing open mics or even simply recording music – instead opting to skip straight to the main stage and devising inane, futile plans and stunts to land there.
I haven’t seen the show or web series, so my impression of this film is coming from a newcomer to these characters and story. It blends unscripted real life interactions, complex scripted action, and archival footage from the web series to create this one of a kind melting pot of influences and styles.
It’s clear that much of what Matt and Jay accomplish comes from pushing the limits of what they normally would be “allowed” to do, and the result feels defiantly fun and exhilaratingly free. I hope for the sake of accessibility to great art that this movie comes out in the form we saw, because it’s a brilliant, hilarious ride that pushes buttons and utilizes IP in a playful way.
I don’t want to get into the actual plot because the discovery of what the movie actually becomes as you watch was joyous. Through happenstance or the limitation of their methods or simply working with what they were given almost two decades in the past (via the web series), you can feel the creative team behind this stretching and problem solving on the fly, resulting in something that could feel messy but instead feels adventurous and thrilling. It’s constantly hilarious with both broad gags and sharp moments.
So here we are, a dozen years after The Dirties, and Matt Johnson continues to be a singular voice. Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie could have only come from him and his renegade team and I’m very grateful I’m here to witness their output.
