“Update Day” is an iconic line, whether you know the web series or the Viceland-produced TV show. You’ve almost certainly seen the bonus episode of Nirvanna the Band the Show titled Update Day. This infectious short clip uses the Wii Shopping Channel’s catchy music and classic Nintendo titles to create a beloved video that many social media accounts repost every Wednesday. The brainchild of Matt Johnson and Jay McCarroll, this is an artistic, inventive blend of scripted narrative, improvisation, and raw footage of real people who often have no idea they’re being filmed.
The original web series aired from 2007 to 2008, while the TV show ran from 2017 to 2018. Both versions share the same core concept: Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol play heightened versions of themselves in a band called Nirvanna the Band, whose goal is to perform at the Rivoli—a well-known bar, restaurant, and performance venue in Toronto—despite never releasing a song or even attempting to contact the venue. Across the episodes, they devise increasingly elaborate plans to book a gig, whether it’s hanging a massive banner across the road or exploiting a child’s Make-A-Wish. Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie channels that same chaotic ingenuity into a film that’s genuinely excellent.
Opening with the first episode of the original web series, the film introduces Matt and Jay as they prepare for their long-dreamed-of gig at the Rivoli from their Toronto apartment, only to jump forward seventeen years. Matt and Jay still haven’t managed to book the gig, and Matt unveils a new plan: jump off the CN Tower and parachute into the Skydome, once in proclaim that they have a gig at the Rivoli despite officially not having booked the venue. When that inevitably fails, Matt’s next idea is even more absurd: convert the RV into a time machine and travel back to 2008, in true Back to the Future fashion. What begins as a ridiculous fantasy becomes real once the RV hits 88 miles per hour, sending them hurtling back to the past.
Matt Johnson is already an established director at this point, having made other mockumentary-style features such as The Dirties and Operation Avalanche, the latter’s premiere even becomes a key plot point in an episode of Nirvanna the Band the Show. He has also directed the excellent narrative feature BlackBerry. Returning to the project that started it all feels especially resonant given the film’s central narrative. Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is, at its core, about friendship and the messy, often absurd struggle to achieve a goal or become “successful” and how it affects that friendship. That dynamic plays out most clearly through Matt and Jay.
Matt, no matter how many plans fail, is willing to pull up his bootstraps and move on to the next plan, whereas Jay is becoming burnt out. He’s an artist who wants to perform and share his work, not keep participating in plans that never move them any closer to performing at the Rivoli. This ultimately leads Jay to decide he wants to go to Ottawa to play an open mic, but that hope is cut short when the two of them unexpectedly end up travelling back to 2008. Time travel is always a tricky device for any film, and Nirvanna the Band the Show The Movie takes on an even more complicated version of it.
They shoot on the actual streets of Toronto instead of closing streets and dressing the locations to resemble 2008. Through a mix of CGI and physical set dressing, some of it put up with permission, some of it very much without, they manage to transform modern-day Toronto into 2008 without the result ever feeling artificial. The shift is helped by their use of period-appropriate digital cameras and the return to a 4:3 aspect ratio. What’s truly astonishing, though, is how seamlessly they blend real footage and deleted scenes from the original web series with the newly shot material. The integration is flawless, creating moments that feel genuinely mind-bending.
Time travel can also easily derail a story, but here, the consequences of Matt and Jay’s actions are woven directly into the narrative. While the film could have gone for exaggerated, world-breaking changes, the ripples and effects all serve the central emotional through‑line. The result is a conclusion that, while simple on the surface, lands as a remarkably satisfying payoff to the preceding hundred minutes. The film is built on setups and payoffs: small lines of dialogue that seem like throwaway jokes return later with new meaning, creating moments that feel earned and unexpectedly resonant.
Given how I’ve written this review, you might assume this is some piece of high art, but Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is, from start to finish, a laugh-a-minute comedy. From the opening moments, you’ll be laughing so hard you’ll struggle to breathe. Even while reusing footage from 2008 to open the film, it’s clear that Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol’s comedic instincts have only sharpened with a bigger budget and lived experience, rather than been diluted by them. The film’s opening is a masterclass in comedic storytelling.
Unless you’ve seen the show or the original web series, you won’t know who Nirvanna the Band are, so watching how the band would open their set at the Rivoli works as a perfect, and very meta, introduction to the film. In just a few minutes, we understand the core dynamic and what Matt and Jay bring to the partnership. Matt is an overconfident, charismatic frontman, while Jay is a timid but exceptionally skilled musician. Even within those first three minutes, it’s clear why Matt confidently declares, “right off the bat, they are going to ask for an encore.” We, as the audience, are already laughing so hard that we want the encore, otherwise known as the rest of the film.
The rest of the film is comedic brilliance, moving effortlessly between boundary‑pushing set pieces, like the CN Tower skydive sequence, which feels like a generational comedic moment, and smaller, sharper beats, such as pointing out how deeply problematic figures were still being celebrated in magazines and newspapers, or reacting to the edgy jokes and language that defined the media of 2008. The biggest standout, though, is how the film repurposes the real Drake shooting incident to propel its narrative forward. It’s a sequence that will absolutely bring the house down in a packed cinema.
Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol are terrific as heightened versions of themselves, delivering performances that are both genuinely hilarious and unexpectedly heartfelt, giving the film’s comedy and its thematic core room to breathe. The movie’s playful and aggressive use of fair‑use principles is a huge part of why its referential and cultural humour lands so sharply. Audiences will immediately recognise many musical cues and footage used that were very prolific and influential for 2008 and 2025, as well as iconic film. I’m honestly stunned they managed to get away with as much as they did.
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie feels like the culmination of seventeen years of work, delivering something genuinely special. Its relentless pace can be a little exhausting, but by the time the credits roll, you’ll have laughed yourself to the moon and back. It is truly a chaotic and energetic ride and one of the greatest comedies of the modern era. It also makes it clear why this one is timeless and more than just a WII Shopping Channel song.
★★★★ 1/2
Playing as part of the 2026 Glasgow Film Festival on February 28th & March 1st / Matt Johnson, Jay McCarrol, Ben Petrie, Ethan Eng, Michael Scott / Dir: Matt Johnson / 15
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