“Do kids like Green Day?” That was a thought going through my head for most of the runtime of Nimrods, a new movie about three teens heading cross-country because they think they’re opening for the band at a New Years Eve concert in Los Angeles (they are not). While they hit their heyday in the ‘90s/2000s, Green Day has managed to stay relevant in pop culture thanks to the success of the Broadway musical American Idiot (hardly an indicator of the youth vote), as well as frequent use of their pop-punk tunes in movies and TV shows. A cursory glance at r/greenday shows that yes, some kids do listen to the band, and I’m sure there are plenty that don’t post on Reddit threads out there, though I do wonder if a New Years concert would be packed with twenty-somethings instead of forty to fifty year olds.
It hardly matters, though, because Nimrods is a pleasantly charming retro-road trip comedy/drama with some engaging leads, sweet cameo performances, and killer tunes throughout thanks to a soundtrack composed of Green Day hits; and new songs in the mode of Billie Joe Armstrong and friends, played by the fictional band in the movie Analog Dogs (who keep accidentally getting called Anal Dogs, to give you a sense of the level of humor in the movie).
Those Analog Dogs are three high school students – Tommy (Mason Thames), Fred (Kylr Coffman), and Chad (Ryan Foust) – who get tricked by Tommy’s older brother (played by Keen Ruffalo, who also appears in Prime Video’s excellent Sterling Point) into thinking they’re opening for Green Day as revenge for Tommy and Fred trapping him on the roof one time. The initial premise… Uh, doesn’t really work. Writer director Lee Kirk purposefully goes for a timeless feel by setting the movie in 2026 but letting everyone look and act like they’re straight out of Prime Green Day Timez, down to flip phones, camcorders, and four-track recorders. But the level of belief suspension it takes to think teens wouldn’t use social media at any point or even Google whether they’re performing at the Palladium strains credulity… Even with, per the title of the film, these not being the smartest tools in the shed.
But if you can get past that, Thames and Coffman in particular make an engagingly dense pair as they stumble from set piece to set piece. There’s nothing unexpected here: the biker bar that seems dangerous but turns out to be full of friendly patrons; the stop at a youth mud pit party where Tommy gets enamored with a punk rock girl (played by Thames’s real life girlfriend McKenna Grace); a weird motel with a spooky owner (Fred Armisen, also not straying too far from the unexpected). It’s the same road movie you’ve seen a million times before; perhaps not as funny, but still enjoyable thanks to the earnestness of the entire cast.
I don’t want to get too far afield talking about Green Day’s music, but Kirk has perfectly channeled the pop punk tone of the band (this is at least in part based loosely on their pre-fame story), which is essentially a smoothed out, not-quite Disney level version of punk counter-culture, but definitely on the side of the sort of anarchy your parents might allow versus actual punk. It’s suburban punk, not deep in a grungy club in London or the Lower East Side of New York City, and that sort of positivity seeps through from the main characters to the star-studded supporting cast. That includes Armisen, as well as Sean Gunn (as a hilariously drunk mechanic), and the Office ladies, Jenna Fischer (who is married to Kirk) and Angela Kinsey.
…Also Green Day, who appear as themselves at a brief record store signing which kicks off the plot, and later in a multi-song concert at the end of the movie. On that note – no pun intended – it is important to mention that this is Live Nation Studios production (along with Inaugural Entertainment), and as such not-so-subtly works as an advertisement for how great it is to go watch Green Day perform live. And it does seem pretty great, as the movie culminates in multiple songs played by the band in front of an appreciative crowd, involving the cast in varying capacities.
While most of the movie is play by the numbers (no shade there, formula works for a reason), the climax at least goes in some surprisingly nuanced and realistic directions, eschewing a fantasy ending for one that feels a little more grounded, a little more realistic, giving in particular Thames and Ruffalo a chance to shine in a dramatic one-on-one scene that perhaps isn’t totally earned but at least it’s satisfying.
Ultimately, what the movie gets across effectively is that thrill of being young and on the cusp of something great; plus the togetherness and joy that live music brings, and how it can bridge gaps between young and old, brothers, friends, strangers… And even a bunch of nimrods.
Nimrods hits theaters on August 14, 2026.
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