Yesterday I took myself to the Palace Cinemas on James St for the first time to watch some scrappy documentary about two Canadian guys who accidentally invent time travel.
I first heard of Nirvanna the Band in around 2018. I must have watched Update Day and looked up what else they'd done, including the then-brand new TV series, but I didn't track it down nor did I watch anything else by them. For shame, 2018 peeping! Now it is 2026, and with the movie inching closer I tracked down the TV series and started to watch it. About halfway through the first episode I realised it was something special. By the end of the first episode I had added it to my mental list of favourite TV comedies. Why the fuck did I put off watching this for eight years?!
Naturally I wanted to see the film, in cinemas no less. Sounds easy right? Yeah it turns out it only has a two-day release here, and the showings were either full or occurring during work and a prior engagement. Oops, shoulda watched it a couple of weeks sooner ya dingus! Thankfully some more screenings opened up and I grabbed myself a ticket to the 1:15 showing.
I struggle to write film reviews since anything that could be said has already been said by people far cleverer than me, so I'll keep it fairly brief. This film gives me that creative spark that the best films do. I'm not really a filmmaker; I dabbled about ten years ago and quickly gave it up, but this film makes me wanna do two things: 1) Listen to Army by Ben Folds Five; 2) Grab my phone-tripod, a friend, and use my city as a character. Toronto is shown off here in a way that I wish I could see in Australian fiction. Johnson and McCarrol know their characters inside out (an extension of themselves really) and know how to play off of each other. Plus the incorporation of real people and events into this thing is masterful. This just has a mix of inventiveness and charm that I adore y'know? Also it's fucking funny. A few scenes in this got the biggest laughs out of me from a cinema screening in years (alongside Naked Gun - gee we're really seeing a comedy renaissance at the movies huh?) You don't need to see the TV show or the preceding web series to understand it; they set up the premise pretty handily. It works as a nice self-contained package. Put simply it's the movie version of their schtick.
I love this film. Go and see it. Now, it won't be for everyone. It's niche. This ain't Shrek or Meet the Spartans. But if it clicks with you, you'll have a new favourite on your hands.
I sincerely hope that Madman are able to extend the release window for another weekend or two. Word of mouth and a small yet rabid fanbase can only do wonders.
OBAMNA!