We used to get rock ‘n roll coming-of-age movies like Nimrods all of the time back in the day. Remember Detroit Rock City? I’m still waiting on the hip-hop version of this style of road trip comedy, where a bunch of obsessed fans overcome insane obstacles to see their favorite band. The GenZ kids of Nimrods revere Green Day, and while that might seem odd considering it’s very much a contemporary story, it makes more sense when you realize their journey mirrors the band’s travels before they became superstars in 1994 with the release of Dookie.
Continuing a killer year for Mason Thames, Nimrods is a sweet, funny, and earnest story about following your dreams, regardless of the odds stacked against you. It’s also loaded up with a full catalog of Green Day tracks (the band are producers, and appear as themselves), so you might feel as if you’ve actually been transported back to the ’90s, listening to them on your Discman. The film stars Thames as Tommy, a Green Day fanatic along with his bassist pal Fred (Kylr Coffman), and drummer Chad (Ryan Foust), who is less committed than his pals. The trio manage to get in front of Green Day at a Kansas City appearance, passing along a demo tape of their band, Analog Dogs, a terrible name that is frequently mispronounced in a crude fashion. Tommy just wants to follow in the footsteps of his late father, also a musician, and thinks he’ll get the chance when a phone call asks the Analog Dogs to open for Green Day on New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles. Little does he know, it was all a cruel prank by his big brother, Wayne (Keen Ruffalo, Mark’s son), who races after them once he realizes the joke has gone too far.
So what you’ve got is a classic, or overly familiar, road trip coming-of-age comedy. But don’t take that to mean Nimrods is lame. It’s anything but that, filled with genuine emotion, humor, a dash of teenage love, and yes, plenty of Green Day tunes. Is there a better closing song to bring on the waterworks, a better song to signify the passage of time, than “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)”? I don’t think so. The guys run into all of the typical comedic roadblocks and side quests. After stealing Wayne’s broken down old taxi cab, they stop at a biker bar and enter a country music talent show run by The Office‘s Angela Kinsey. Her partner on the Office Ladies podcast, Jenna Fischer, also the wife of director Lee Kirk, plays Tommy’s mom who is worried sick about her road tripping son. The boys, now driving a crappy ice cream truck, encounter a group of hard rockin’ youths just like them, including McKenna Grace (Thames’ real-life girlfriend and co-star earlier this year in Regretting You) as Olivia, who becomes his romantic fixation. There’s also a strange, and unnecessary, diversion to a horror motel straight out of Psycho, run by Fred Armisen.
Along the way, the Analog Dogs must deal with the weight of growing up, expectations, and differing world views. Tommy and Fred are gung-ho for livin’ that punk rock life, but Chad has goals and a promising future ahead of him, which leads to clashes with his less-educated buddies. It all comes as natural and realistic, a lot more so than the idea of three kids making it very far on practically no money, no reliable transportation, and no real idea of where they’re even going. But this isn’t the kind of movie where you should get bogged down by the details, anyway. The dream of being a rock star is just that for most people; a dream. So you have to want to embrace the fantasy to enjoy something like Nimrods, because, for maybe one out of a million people, the fantasy becomes reality. And this movie is funny and charming enough that it’s very easy to do. Whether you like Green Day or not, this one’s a winner worth tuning in for.
Nimrods is open in theaters now.
