Green Day Step Into the Background for 'Nimrods,' a Road-Trip Comedy That Treats the Band as Destination, Not Subject
Green Day have spent three decades as the headliners. Their new film Nimrods, opening in theatres on Friday, August 14, makes them the goal.
The comedy follows three teenage friends — played by Mason Thames, Kylr Coffman and Ryan Foust — who get pranked into believing their band will open Green Day's New Year's Eve show at the Hollywood Palladium. They pile into a car and drive across the country to get there. Billie Joe Armstrong, Tré Cool and Mike Dirnt appear as themselves in small roles, taking the stage for the big New Year's performance, but the story stays with the kids in the van (The Hollywood Reporter).
Armstrong told The Hollywood Reporter at the Los Angeles premiere that he had always wanted a film where the band sat in the background and the music conducted the whole narrative. He pointed to two cult films that shaped him growing up: Rock 'n' Roll High School, the 1979 Ramones comedy, and A Hard Day's Night, the Beatles' 1964 mock-documentary. Both put the music at the centre while the band members drifted through as presences rather than protagonists.
Director Lee Kirk said Armstrong came to him with a simple premise: a Green Day movie that ends at a New Year's Eve show. Kirk decided the camera should follow a band trying to reach that show, and folded in stories the Green Day members handed him as easter eggs buried throughout the film. Many of the band's real-life anecdotes made it in, though the specifics are being left for audiences to spot.
The cast rounds out with McKenna Grace, Jenna Fischer, Angela Kinsey, Fred Armisen, Sean Gunn and Keen Ruffalo in supporting appearances. Reuters, reporting on August 11, described the film as channelling the band's punk-rock spirit into a theatrical comedy opening in US cinemas this month (Reuters). Green Day also promoted the film at San Diego Comic-Con in July, sitting down at the Variety Studio to discuss it (Variety via YouTube).
An accompanying soundtrack is available through Green Day's official store: a two-disc set spanning 22 career tracks, a new song called "I'm Never Gonna R.I.P," and four previously unreleased live recordings. A double LP on green vinyl, branded "Fred's Hair," is also on offer (Green Day Store).
Asked whether Green Day would want a more traditional biopic — the kind that traces a career from basement gigs to arena tours — Armstrong was blunt. "That's not on my radar." The band seems more interested in letting the songs do the storytelling, and in letting somebody else drive.
