It was a bartender friend in the Pacific Northwest — thus an impeccable judge of both people and humor — who first mentioned Nirvanna the Band as something I might dig. As a fan of things that are Canadian and mordantly funny, I followed. What Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol of NTB do is deeply funny and Canadian, but also kind of inspirational. Not stuffed full of treacle or family-friendly foolishness, it is work that engages with the capacity that we have to be encouraged.
It’s fascinating that Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is hitting theaters within a week of Charli XCX’s also-delightful The Moment, because both films define the current continuum of telling stories about musicians in chaotic states (as well as being about the process of The Show without showing us The Show). But where The Moment is about killing myths (it’s like the Wes Craven’s New Nightmare of pop music), NTBTSTM is about making them and letting loose with sci-fi adventure possibility. If you come into the Nirvannaverse with no familiarity with the guys or their thing, it’s like Johnson and McCarrol found some sort of alchemical formula that wins you over immediately and makes you a fan in a very short period of time.
I reached out to my friend and colleague Zack Hall (you’ve seen his incredible trailer creations at the Belcourt or on The Criterion Channel, and he hosts a lot of the Midnight Movie screenings at the Belcourt as well) to chat about the film. He’s been my Canadian-comedy buddy for almost 20 years, ever since he brought Trailer Park Boys to my attention.
Jason Shawhan: How did you get to know Nirvanna the Band?
Zack Hall: Embarrassingly, I first noticed Matt Johnson as Doug in Blackberry, not knowing anything about the film. I immediately went to figure out who he was only to realize he’d directed the film himself and had this back catalog of amazing work I’d only heard of in passing. Thinking back on it, I’d probably seen some clips on YouTube or elsewhere on social media, because Nirvanna the Band sounded familiar. I found the entire series and binged it as quickly as possible while my partner was out. When she was back home, I ran it back and watched it all again with her. I was converted. I think when you mention that alchemical formula, you’re really onto something. The purity of friendship and vision, the chemistry, the rapport, the sense of humor, the guerrilla disregard for IP — it all just hits you and clicks, if it’s ever going to, the second you’re introduced to them.
JS: When Nashville was chosen to be one of the stops on the film’s American tour, at first I was a bit surprised. But when you think about it, what resonates more in Music City than an inchoate dream on a collision course with unique and unexpected forms of talent?
ZH: I think they’re inevitably gonna break through wherever there are pop-culture nerds and artists because there’s a generational shorthand in all their work; all of us their age grew up on a very similar media diet. That’s maybe something that’s scattered a bit in the interceding years, but I think their innate optimism in the face of the Sisyphean struggle to get a gig at the Rivoli, which leads them to evermore cartoonish schemes, is infinitely relatable as a dreamer. And their success as creators is all the more inspiring for it.
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JS: While collating the results for the Scene’s most recent Jim Ridley Film Poll, this was the film that snuck up on me, simply because it made the Top 25 for the year as a film that had no U.S. press screenings and wasn’t part of (distributor) Neon’s for-your-consideration box. That means everyone who saw it did so either at the Toronto International Film Festival or at one of the eight one-off dates that happened in the fall, and that’s staggering. The same also goes for its similarly amazing and similarly Canadian sibling Castration Movie Anthology.
ZH: With the film, I think we’re in danger of them either becoming instantly famous to the point of overexposure or a kind of cult handshake reference themselves. It’s heartening to see a sold-out crowd reacting to an original(ish) comedy. I think those buzzy early screenings were massive for how the film was received because of how much fun it is to commune with other weirdos and laugh your guts out, and the people who saw it like that are likely to remember it for years to come. I only hope that upon its actual opening it can sustain that energy from the audience.
JS: We’re having this discussion as the good and decent world is mourning Catherine O’Hara, and the history of Canadian comedy — SCTV, The Kids in the Hall, Trailer Park Boys, Kenny vs. Spenny, Todd & the Book of Pure Evil, NTBTS, Schitt’s Creek and the Letterkenny/Shoresy juggernaut — that’s the kind of sustained achievement that makes you just have to sit back and take it all in. And that’s not even counting what’s going on with Heated Rivalry, but we just don’t have the space to get into Sexy Canada at the moment.
ZH: You forgot Nathan Fielder. There’s something really comforting about Canadian comedy. It kind of peers through the horrifying veil under which we all live here in the States and comes out with something more genuinely humane, kind and hopeful. Maybe it’s like having that neighbor with a loud, messy relationship, an ever-revolving cadre of shady comers and goers, who probably enjoys fireworks and drinking too much for their age. Makes for great people-watching, but you’re gonna keep your distance. I dunno. Maybe it’s just having the free brainspace that’s not tied up in living under an emerging fascist state that lets you see the world through slightly rosier lenses. But whatever it is, it’s sure a nice counterpoint to the aggressively abrasive end-of-days cringe comedy we’ve got happening here.
