By Dan Skip Allen

To say I’m a big “Green Day” fan would be underselling myself. I’ve seen this band three times live, and the most recent was their incredible set at “Welcome to Rockville” last year. I first heard their music thirty or so years ago with their album “Dookie”. That album had some amazing songs like “Longview”, “Basket Case”, “Welcome to Paradise”, and “When I Come Around”, to name a few. I was instantly hooked on their grunge pink sound. I’ve been a fan of theirs ever since. So last year, when I heard there was going to be a movie inspired by the music and experience of their youth, I was instantly excited for it. And I didn’t know what it was going to be. What it turned into was “Nimrods,” and after seeing it, I felt like I was back at a “Green Day” concert. This film was fantastic in every way I could possibly describe it. Lee Kirk, the director, did a great job bringing me and other viewers into this world.

Tommy (Mason Thames, Black Phone, How to Train Your Dragon 2025) is a teenager who goes to high school in Kansas City, Missouri.  School isn’t exactly his thing, though, so he decides to leave, and his buddy Fred (Kylr Coffman) goes with him. Along with their other friend Chad (Ryan Faust), who is a bit different than the other two, combined as a three piece punk rock band inspired by their favorite band, “Green Day”. When they hear the band is coming to their local music store, they sneak in line to give the band their demo. Tre Cool gets Tommy’s number and says they’ll listen to the song and call them back. Unbeknownst to the three burgeoning musicians, Tommy’s brother Wayne (Keen Ruffalo, the son of Mark) decides to play a prank on Tommy because of a previous incident between the pair. He has his friend Silverio (Ignacio Diaz) call Tommy pretending he’s Tre Cool and says they liked the demo and want them to open up for them at their show at “The Palladium” in Los Angeles. This sets off a confluence of events that these kids didn’t see coming.

Kirk combined with the members of “Green Day”, Billie Jo Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tre Cool, do a couple of things with the script that makes this a fantastic coming of age story inspired by their own stories. The first is making this movie road trip film.The road trip aspects of the story have multiple layers to them.The main group of friends are going to Los Angeles, the Thames character’s brother and his friend follow them and the Faust character’s mother all get involved at one point. Also, there is a love interest, Olivia (McKenna Grace, Scream 7, Gifted) for the Thames character that enters the picture in the middle. To add to this, there is also a home video recording element to the story. The kids are recording their journey across the country. These are all cool moments. You never know the context of home videos, and here you follow along with the subjects of said recordings. These melded in nicely with the main story.

For a relatively small budgeted film, this movie had a nice supporting cast. Obviously, all of the ones I’ve mentioned were fantastic in their roles. I love seeing McKenna Grace in anything. Jenna Fischer (The Office) plays the Thames and Ruffalo characters’ mother, and she does a wonderful job, mostly in phone conversations with her children. The Ruffalo character was a pleasant surprise to me. It’s obvious that the acorn doesn’t fall from the tree in that family. He was a revelation to me. I hope to see him again soon. The members of “Green Day” pop up a few times as well as play a fantastic concert for everyone watching in the theater. Fred Armison (SNL), Sean Gunn (The Guardians of the Galaxy Trilogy), and Bobby Lee stand up comic, all have hilarious moments in the movie. I loved all the various people who popped up throughout the film.

As a huge fan of “Green Day” I was over the moon by how many of their songs were spread throughout the movie. I felt like I was at a “Green Day” concert while watching this film. For a portion of it, towards the end, I was. And as a special added thing for the early screening of the movie, they played at least a few more songs just for this occasion. So when you go see the film you won’t get this mini concert at the end unfortunately, but there are so many “Green Day” songs that I’m sure you’ll be very satisfied with. I could listen to them every day if I had to. Their music is so indelible and memorable to me.

Even though the movie takes place in the modern era, I felt there was a period piece aspect of the movie. With the clothes, hairstyles, cars, and so forth, they all added to this feel of the film. Also, the cinematography looked like it had a grain to it, which was better than a digital sheen that most movies that come out now have. I like how Kirk and the cinematographer, David Robert Jones, tried to make the film look like it came out in the 80s or early 90s. I’d rather see more of these kinds of movies. This guy would be a great fit for movies based in the 70s and 80s.

“Nimrods” was well worth the year-long wait when I first heard about it at the Toronto International Film Festival.  I knew that as a huge fan, I would like it because it’s about one of my favorite bands and loosely based on their journey of  eventually becoming the massive band we all know today. The cast was terrific, especially the three leads, but the supporting cast had some standouts as well. Mainly Ruffalo. He was a revelation to me in this role. The look of the movie, including the cinematography, added a nice element to the story. I loved the period look the movie had. I also loved a bunch of my favorite songs from this legendary three piece grunge/punk rock band being played all throughout the film. Any fans of this band, Thames, Grace, or coming of age films will surely love this movie like I did. I say tell your friends and family members to go see it. It needs their support, that’s for sure. 

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 stars