Review of Nimrods by Misshapen_Steed

TLDR; Nimrods is the perfect film for post-21st Century Breakdown Green Day: it is endearing and sincere, but uninteresting. It isn't as fun as it thinks it is or wants to be. Every once in a while something works, but the majority of it falls flat.

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Green Day is not my favorite band, but they are maybe the most important and meaningful to me. They certainly used to be my favorite, as is the case with Metallica (the only band that can really compete in significance). My tastes have grown well beyond both bands in many directions, but they are both foundational to my love for music and the things that have grown out of that (i.e., playing in my own band, pivoting towards the creative in my academic/professional life). In that way, these groups have genuinely impacted me beyond the mere pleasure of listening to them.

Green Day is not a great band anymore. They have not been a great band in a long time (at least in the studio, they have been a wonderful live act for a while and even as they age I believe that is still the case). People are still not willing to fully engage with the songwriting of Billie Joe Armstrong and co., but I do seriously believe that Armstrong from 1989-2004 was one of the most gifted pop songwriters to ever do it (not to mention 90s Cool + Dirnt as an all time rhythm section, or the wonderful synergy between Armstrong's voice and Dirnt's backing vocals).

Nimrods does not really engage with Green Day or their music. The music is just a soundtrack for this generic run of the mill road movie. Nearly any fledgling "punk" band would kill for a chance to open for Green Day, so I get the excitement—but what does the band and their music actually mean to these kids?

That does not seem to be of interest to the film, and I suppose that makes sense. Can a band—one as famous and enduring as Green Day—begin to perceive and unpack what their art means to the people who have consumed it, lived with it? Do songs like "Basket Case" or "American Idiot" or—god forbid—"Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" mean all that much to the men who wrote them after decades of playing them every night? Any specificity that fueled the making of those songs seems lost, at least to this film—everything is as broad and obvious as possible. The car broke down? Cue "Hitchin' a Ride." It's the end of the film, happy ending? Play "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)," the sarcastic, cynical breakup song that has now become synonymous with high school graduation.

Green Day were always going to "sell out"—the songs were simply too catchy, Armstrong's ear for melody and knack for quietly clever lyrics too stellar to not become massive. They've never been a radical band, though being more politically outspoken than a lot of their pop punk peers. Green Day never made dangerous, or revolutionary punk music—Green Day made music to soundtrack the daydreaming and yearning of listless, anxious teens. Slightly queer and rebellious, relishing in the malaise of the American suburbs, but not revolutionary. This film, produced by fucking Live Nation Studios, flattens anything meaningful and specific about these songs (from the perspective of both the artist and listener) into the most obvious of signifiers. There's only one sequence in here that, to me, uses the band's music in a meaningful way, one that captures their spirit.

Nimrods is mostly fine. There are some decent jokes, though the majority do not land. This band deserves better though, which is a strange thing to say about something they were directly involved in—but that's probably the issue.

I did appreciate the prevalence of songs from Insomniac in this film—maybe the band is aware that it's their best record.