This gonzo jape deserves a place in the annals of time travel movie arcana
Travelling back to 2008 may not be everyone’s first choice when they rumble the secret to time travel but that is the year of destination for the hapless duo in this off the wall and out of its head Canadian comedy caper.
Filmmaker Matt Johnson (who had a hit with BlackBerry in 2023) and musician Jay McCarrol began their careers on a web only sketch show two decades ago and in their latest feature they play fictionalised versions of themselves in an act called Nirvanna the Band. Constantly down on their luck, they dream up a crackpot idea that will land them a gig at Toronto’s hipper than thou music venue the Rivoli.
They will skydive off the city’s landmark CN Tower straight into the equally landmarky Skydome during a Blue Jays game and the attendant publicity will clinch them the prized gig and secure them world fame.
Simples! Of course, things go horribly wrong and in a last desperate feat of magical thinking, Matt discovers time travel and they end up back in the year 2008. Once there, they are forced to meet their younger selves and fall foul of the butterfly effect, which sees their future splinter off into alternate realities.
Jay McCarrol as Jay McCarrol
Borrowing liberally from Bill and Ted and Back to The Future (there’s even a naff mode of transport and the use of a tasty beverage that becomes a vital lubricant to enable time travel), you may also be reminded of the little seen indie movie Primer, a pointy-headed sci-fi oddity that went to great lengths to explore the genuine scientific possibility of actual time travel.
In the publicity notes for Nirvanna: the band, the show, the movie, the plot is helpfully synopsised as “blah, blah, blah” and that sums up the gutsy guerilla filmmaking just fine. The script is mostly ad-libbed, the fourth wall is reduced to rubble, and Johnson and McCarrol blatantly trespass and shoot without filming permits for improvised location scenes captured on hidden cameras, along with some clever digital trickery involving James Corden, Ellen DeGeneres, and Will Smith.
Matt Johnson as Matt Johnson
In fact, you will be constantly asking yourself how they pulled it all off. Surely it can’t have been down to that legendary Canadian politeness and the kindness of strangers, some of whom are actual members of the Toronto police force who waylay the duo with awkward questions as they go about shooting their movie. What a Nirv.
As for that zany title, which tweaks the name of one of the most famous rock acts of all time, maybe Johnson and McCarrol were inspired by Chicago band Wilco’s sly decision to name their 2015 album Star Wars because, well, duh!