Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (2025)

Nirvanna the Band the Show is a Canadian mockumentary series about a duo called 'Nirvana the Band' who put the cart before the horse and try to book a gig before putting together an actual act. Mostly revolving around hatching half-baked schemes to play the Rivoli, and jam-packed with '90s pop culture references, it's a blend of scripted elements and completely improvisational moments, which I can only describe as Flight of the Conchords meets Nathan for You. A lot of it involves chance encounters and random reactions captured from unsuspecting people on the street, a la Da Ali G Show, Borat, and Bad Grandpa, which often takes the action in new and unexpected directions.

Without revealing too much, their latest adventure takes on the shape of Back to the Future and uses a lot of clever trickery (and borderline illegal activity) to pull it off its grand illusion. Half the fun is in trying to figure out how they did it and got away with it all. This time it feels much more scripted and lacking in the more intimate improvisational elements, but it's still a hoot if you've grown to love the charming antics of these two lunatics. There is the germ of genius behind the utter stupidity of it all, which is my favorite combination.

3½ Orbitz drinks out of 5

Note: All prior episodes are available for viewing on archive.org. I recommend it if you're of a certain age and looking for something nerdy to obsess over.

Web series (2007-2009, Extras): 4 Rivoli plans out of 5

Season 1 & 2 (2017-2018): 4 fair use laws out of 5

BlackBerry (2023)

1996: Waterloo, Ontario. Mike and Doug are two tech geniuses with an idea who hire the shrewd, aggressive Jim as salesman to whip their business into shape and start churning out results, in what would eventually become the prototype for the smartphone. Normally I find movies about start-ups boring, and I'm not sure how many liberties were taken, but it's a lot more interesting than it has any right to be, mostly due to the charisma of its two main leads. Innovation is the name of the game, and the BlackBerry was advanced for its time, but the world moves quickly and nothing ever stays the same for long.

3½ satisfying clicks out of 5

Operation Avalanche (2016)

A mockumentary set during the space race of the late 1960s, it explores the idea of the U.S. faking the moon landing to get ahead of the Russians, a famous conspiracy theory explored in popular media (including in 2024). A pair of CIA agents infiltrate NASA to expose a possible mole and wind up participating in the subterfuge. What's really impressive about this film is how it recreates the era and blends the footage to look authentic. Matt Johnson already had some experience with this shooting style in The Dirties and Nirvanna the Band the Show, but this is a much more mature interpolation and the effect is seamless.

3 Kubrick techniques out of 5

THE DIRTIES [2013]

The Dirties is Canadian writer/director Matt Johnson's debut about a couple of high school students making a film about exacting deadly revenge on the students who torment them.  One is doing it for comedic venting while the other is constructing a blueprint for the real deal.
It starts out quite amusing but as it unfolds we realize we're slowly falling down a dark and disturbing hallway that seems to impossible to turn back from.  Its wicked sense of humor is what makes the film stand out from all the other films that attempt to touch base with similar subject matter.
It sounds risky to approach the material in such a style but when all is said and done I found it makes an impact with stark realism that is far more effective than anything before it.

4 end title sequences I could watch again and again out of 5