Directed by Matt Johnson, starring Johnson and Jay McCarrol, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (now in theatres) is one of the most exciting film releases of the year, with the duo exemplifying Canadian comedy gold. It’s a film that’s gotten a huge reaction in theatres since its premiere at SXSW last year, with several moments that make you say, ‘How did they pull that off?’
Following the successful web series, Johnson and McCarrol’s characters, Matt and Jay, strive to book a gig at the Toronto club the Rivoli, and this time their scheme involves time travel. To make the Back to the Future comparison, the DeLorean in that film is an RV in Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie.
The outrageous stunts in the film are an absolute riot to watch, from skydiving from the CN Tower to filming outside of Drake’s mansion on the day that his security guard was shot, and Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie actually includes footage from local TV station CP24 covering the shooting, where you can see Johnson and McCarrol, in character, in the background.
“When you have no money, you take what you can get,” Johnson told Yahoo Canada during the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). “I’ll tell you, for that one thing that’s in the movie where we’re actually in CP24, there are two dozen equally unbelievable ‘how did we do that’ things that will never see the light of day.”
“So you have to shoot a lot of those things. … You just never know what’s going to work and what’s not, but that’s a favourite of ours. In fact, that was the very first thing edited together for this movie. … We were like, I can’t believe we’ve done this.”
The TTC and Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour
But for every Torontonian, one of the most impressive elements of Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is Johnson and McCarrol making a film that relied on the Toronto Transit Commission’s (TTC) notoriously unreliable streetcar schedule.
“It was crazy,” Johnson said. “You really don’t realize just how out of sync the TTC is with the needs of the commuter until you are sitting there waiting for a streetcar to come so that you can film with it.”
“That said, we love the TTC, and we were able to film in them, on them, around them, nonstop. They never gave us any trouble. … But there are some little tricks going on. … The time that we were shooting the movie was exactly the moment that the TTC closed the Spadina North-South line, and so what you see in the movie is actually me jumping off of the King line at Bathurst.”
“Not only that,” McCarrol added. “[It was] Taylor Swift’s big Toronto concert night. And so everyone was spilling out, and the streets were alive, and we were trying to shoot a real stunt using the real TTC.”
“And then going around in that RV and syncing up with TTC too, these are all the sort of real stunts, you would call them, that were driving us crazy.”
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (Elevation Pictures)
‘Our goal is showing people at their best’
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie features many moments in which the film’s stars interact with unsuspecting people around Toronto, from individuals walking the city streets to a Canadian Tire employee, and that’s truly where a lot of the magic of the movie is created.
“When we started our web show, we were out shooting in the real world, just because we couldn’t afford to do anything. And when we were interacting with real people, we’d be watching the footage back, and we’d see somebody do something that wasn’t embarrassing, it was just a vulnerable piece of humanity that we just thought was so real and private that you could never recreate,” McCarrol said. “And we just thought it was so funny for our characters interacting with them.”
“It just became the currency of what we go for when we’re shopping around and just seeing what we get. It’s all very real moments, usually people in Canada, being super friendly, it’s just the best.”
“Our goal is showing people at their best, because so often, I think people are embarrassed. And nobody wants to be on camera. Everybody’s afraid of public speaking. And I think the great irony is that when you’re speaking with somebody extemporaneously on the street, they’re actually very confident, and they come off very well. But it’s only because they’re completely in their persona, not being self-conscious. They’re just trying to solve your problem.”
TORONTO, ONTARIO – SEPTEMBER 04: Cast and crew including Mark Hussey, Matt Greyson, Conor Fisher, Jared Raab, Luca Tarantini, Robert Upchurch, Lou Gatti, Matt Johnson, Jay McCarrol, Tristan Zerafa and Ayush Joy attend the premiere of “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie” during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival at Royal Alexandra Theatre on September 04, 2025 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)
(Rodin Eckenroth via Getty Images)’We give our own worst feedback’
While Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie has already been a big hit with audiences, which also follows the significant acclaim Johnson received for his previous film BlackBerry, the filmmaker highlighted that what he sees, particularly with young filmmakers, is the “internal censorship” they face, stemming from a fear that they’re “going to do something wrong.”
“In our film crew, everyone is such a perfectionist, for lack of a better word,” McCarrol said. “We are our own worst enemies. We give our own worst feedback.”
But that “perfectionist” way of working resulted in a film that feels incredibly original, fresh, satisfyingly absurd, unapologetically Canadian, and deserving of endless rewatches.