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‘Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie’ Review: Matt Johnson’s Outrageous Time-Travel Stunt Pays Off
Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol plunder 17 years of footage to make a renegade comedy in which the two musicians go to extreme lengths to book a gig.
That explains why the film opens with the very first scene of the series — a perfect way to establish Matt’s delusions of grandeur, as he imagines the instant fame he and composer-pianist Jay would achieve, if audiences could only see their magic on stage. It’s like watching Wile E. Coyote diagram his doomed-to-fail intentions, except that in this case, it means bouncing the ideas off of unsuspecting civilians — a strategy that elicits unpredictable reactions, while also making it easier for Johnson to complete the illusion that they actually followed through with their stunts via editing and effects. Such details give an idea of how silly the plot can get at times, and yet, beneath all the irony (including an overripe, Alan Silvestri-style orchestral score) and cartoonish schemes runs a sincere exploration of the pair’s friendship — specifically, what happens when the bond keeping Nirvanna the Band together reaches its breaking point.
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