Nimrods Review

Green Day is arguably one of America’s most famous punk bands, which were huge in the 1990s and 2000s. They have moved into filmmaking by producing the coming-of-age road movie Nimrods.

Tommy (Mason Thames) and Fred (Kylr Coffman) are best friends, big fans of Green Day, and two-thirds of the band Analog Dogs. They give a copy of their demo to Green Day when the band is at a record store. When Tommy’s older brother, Wayne (Keen Ruffalo), finds out, he plays a prank by pretending to be the band and tells Tommy that Analog Dogs will open their New Year’s Eve concert in Los Angeles. Tommy and his bandmates travel west so they can get to the concert in time.

In recent years, music artists have produced biopics about themselves. Bohemian Rhapsody and Michael were big hits even though they were sanitised portrayals, whilst Elton John and Robbie Williams were willing to show less savoury aspects of their lives. Green Day went in a different direction by making an original film featuring the band and their music. They avoided the tropes and template of a music biopic. Instead, they used the tropes and template of a road movie.

I listened to a lot of Green Day when I was young. I have many of their albums, including their early work, not just from Dookie onwards. Nimrods premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and the limited release was made into an event. I should have been the target audience, so it’s disheartening to say I was disappointed.

It was noble that Green Day wanted to make something different compared to other artists, and there were some fun moments in Nimrods. Analog Dogs playing “Dominated Love Slave” at a biker bar was a bit of comedic genius, and for Green Day fans, the soundtrack was filled with recognisable songs. Some of the characters were endearingly stupid, particularly Fred and his mistake at a gas station.

Nimrods was a road trip movie, and it had a lot of tropes and cliches from the genre. There was a mismatched pair because the third member of the band, Chad (Ryan Foust), was an uptight nerd. He was pressured by the other two and used as a piggy bank. The group dynamics were the leader, the nerd, and the numbskull, although Tommy couldn’t add 20 + 5 + 1 + 1, so he wasn’t Mensa material. They go to a biker bar, which reminded me of films ranging from Sonic the Hedgehog to All Roads Lead to Rome: luckily for the Analog Dogs, the risk of violence was much lower. Tommy got to meet a skater girl played by Mckenna Grace, making Nimrods the second film Thames and Grace played a romantic item. Grace did rock the skater, leading me to think of the Avril Lavigne song “Complicated.”

When watching Nimrods, I ended up thinking of the American Dad episode “Independent Movie.” That episode lampooned road movies and indie movies, so it’s hardly a good sign Nimrods could be compared to a parody. Both were about cross-country journeys in quirky modes of transport where a group of teens needed to get to an event in time.

Nimrods did attempt to have an emotional core. Tommy’s dad was also a musician, but he died when Tommy was young. Music was a way for Tommy to have a connection to his dad, and why he used older recording devices instead of using a computer. Tommy’s family were poor, so his mother (Jenna Fisher) could only give the teen his dad’s old belongings. However, these ideas were pushed into the background and only brought up when the film wanted some emotional heft. It wasn’t earned.

Nimrods was sadly a risk-free and predictable film, which hit harder considering the music Green Day produced in their heyday.