SXSW 2025 Review: Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie

Following the success of 2023’s BlackBerry, writer-director Matt Johnson decided to use his newfound blank cheque powers for good. Instead of signing up to direct the next major Hollywood franchise, Johnson linked back up with former co-star and co-writer Jay McCarrol to resurrect their characters from the beloved Nirvanna the Band the Show series, now making their big-screen debut in the aptly and ridiculously titled Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie.

It’s hard to overstate just how blissfully insane this movie is. Johnson and McCarrol (playing fictionalized versions of themselves) star as Matt and Jay, two bumbling Toronto “musicians” who are still trying to live out their dream of playing a show at the Rivoli, a local music venue. 

The duo spend their days dreaming up increasingly elaborate plans to secure a gig at the venue, which leads them to the most logical solution: they will illegally skydive off the top of the CN Tower onto the field of the Toronto SkyDome stadium in the midst of a Blue Jays game to announce their show that evening (one they have yet to book). 

Without delving too far into spoiler territory, part of that plan does happen, setting off a chain-reaction involving further death-defying stunts, time travel, digs at Canadiana, and the reckless flouncing of copyright laws that may make Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie the most hilarious movie that no one will ever see outside of a film festival. 

Easily the funniest movie in years, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is an audacious feat of filmmaking that feels beamed in from another universe where the laws of gravity and copyright infringement have no hold over the filmmakers. 

Without hyperbole, the film has one of the single best jokes in recent memory, along with stunts that would make the Jackass team blush. All of this madness is also wound up in a complex time travel story with a surprisingly emotional underpinning that lends the film moments of true heart amidst the chaos. 

A film experience like no other,  Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is a wild accomplishment that feels destined to be a future cult classic (assuming anyone else ever gets to see it). 

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie premiered at the SXSW Film Festival.