Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (let’s call it NtBtStM for ease) is the perfect film for anyone feeling a little down about the world. Not just because it’s a daffy, high-concept, low-stakes buddy comedy with a winning pair of stars, but because it’s built on a vision of the world as a place where wonderful things can happen if you dream big, keep your heart open and occasionally sneak a pair of wire-cutters into a highly secure area.

A feature-length follow-up to Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol’s 2007 web series (titled Nirvanna the Band the Show), NtBtStM finds the fictionalised versions of Matt and Jay pretty much where they were 19 years ago. They still dream of a gig at Toronto’s Rivoli bar and they’re still launching one insane scheme after another to try and land one – like the movie’s audacious opening setpiece where they attempt to skydive off the CN Tower into the middle of an in-progress baseball match.

Part of NtBtStM’s unique charm comes from its overwhelming Canadian-ness, not just in the way the plot ropes in Toronto landmarks but in how unfailingly friendly Matt and Jay’s interactions with random bystanders are. Everyone our heroes encounter is willing to lend a hand – whether that means telling them the time or keeping an eye on the electrical box they’ve commandeered – and Matt is never too busy to ask a stranger where they’re from, even when he’s literally running for his life. Matt and Jay’s out-in-the-world antics are shot with handheld cameras and without permits, so the politely baffled reactions they receive from the general public are mostly genuine.

The scenes of Matt and Jay just sitting around together are every bit as entertaining as the guerrilla filmmaking shenanigans. As childhood friends who’ve been playing these characters for nearly two decades, the duo have an easy comic rhythm that can send any conversation spinning off into some funny new direction. They’re a perfect double act, with Matt as an irrepressibly optimistic force of nature and Jay as the quiet guy who probably knows better but is just too much in awe of his friend to point out that maybe there are easier ways to book a gig in a bar than staging an incident that bears a disturbing resemblance to a terrorist attack.

NtBtStM could get by on vibes alone, but it shoots for something far more ambitious, taking advantage of 19-year-old footage from the web series to craft an elaborate time travel plot. It’s a fun conceit that allows them to riff on genre tropes and to make about the most perfect 'wow, 2008 was a different time' gag of all time. And as the story takes Matt and Jay back and forth in time, up and down the CN Tower and all around Toronto, the movie just keeps finding new, ridiculous ways to surprise and delight.