Nimrods Review: Green Day's Fun Teen Movie Is All About Its Great Young Leads

Published Aug 13, 2026, 10:52 AM EDT Alex is the Senior Editor of Reviews & Prestige Content, overseeing ScreenRant's film reviews as one of its Rotten Tomatoes-approved critics. After graduating from Brown University with a B.A. in English, he spent a locked-down year in Scotland completing a Master's in Film Studies from the University of Edinburgh, which he hears is a nice, lively city. He now lives in and works from Milan, Italy, conveniently a short train ride from the Venice Film Festival, which he first covered for SR in 2024. There's something really strange about Nimrods. The new film from writer-director Lee Kirk, about three teens driving cross-country hoping to open for Green Day on New Year's Eve, was made together with the band. It both is and is not about them – the characters and story are fictional, but were created by taking real anecdotes from their youth and throwing them in a blender. In some ways, that was a refreshingly welcome decision. Kirk has made it possible for the movie to function on its own terms, free from the storytelling shackles of biography. But trying to capture the spirit of musicians who came up in the late '80s and early '90s in a present-day narrative results in some serious cognitive dissonance. Despite casting Mason Thames and Mckenna Grace, two of the more recognizable Gen Z faces in movies, these teens don't feel like they belong to today. Every few minutes, I had to remind myself that this wasn't a period piece. However, given where the film came from, this sense of falseness is mixed with a heavy dose of truth. These characters are well-drawn, but uncannily so. They're either cosplaying as '90s kids a bit too well, or they were plucked from another generation and dropped into this one. In any case, Nimrods is most comfortable when it can pretend that smartphones don't exist. That makes it something of a fantasy, and as a result, it lacks the lived-in quality that Kirk perhaps hoped for. But it's still fun, engaging, and well-performed by its young cast, who make the most of the opportunity to play relationships that feel real very quickly. Nimrods' Young Cast Are Its True Strength Tommy (Thames) and Fred (Kylr Coffman) are a pair of too-cool-for-school best friends who aspire to live the punk-rock life. Together with Chad (Ryan Foust), their timid, rule-following drummer, they have a band, Analog Dogs, and record demos in their garage. One day, just after Christmas, Green Day make a formal appearance at their local Kansas City record store ahead of a concert. Tommy and Fred go, demo in hand, which Tommy has helpfully written his phone number on. Drummer Tré Cool calls it immediately as a bit, and everyone goes on their way with a smile on their face. The only one not pleased is Wayne (Keen Ruffalo), Tommy's older brother. Still peeved that Tommy stranded him up on the roof as he was hanging Christmas decorations, he decides to play a little prank. As the friends try, and fail, to sneak into Green Day's concert, "Tré Cool" calls again. They loved their demo. They'd like Analog Dogs to open for them at their New Year's Eve concert in Los Angeles. Wayne likely imagined his brother would spin out after learning that, of course, their working single mother (Jenna Fischer) couldn't drop everything and drive them to California. He wasn't expecting that the license-less Tommy would steal his car. Thames, already a studio leading man at 19, has just the right amount of main character energy... Nimrods is structured like an episodic road movie, and it has good fun with that rhythm. The boys, having left on a whim with virtually no plan, run into plenty of trouble on their cross-country journey, and meet a few interesting people. Actors like Sean Gunn and Fred Armisen get to step in and be funny for a scene. Mckenna Grace, the hardest-working zoomer in Hollywood, gets a more significant segment as an instant connection for Tommy. It's hardly a novel story, but neither is it really trying to be. The film's real anchor are the performances by these young stars, as well as the interplay between their characters. All three leads wear their roles naturally. Thames, already a studio leading man at 19, has just the right amount of main character energy to single him out as the band's lead singer, and he and Grace create some real sparks in their scenes together. But Kylr Coffman's work as Fred is the most impressive. He's playing an airhead best friend archetype, but manages to make him completely believable as a real person – there wasn't a choice of his I ever doubted. What he and Thames manage to bring out in each other is the real juice of Nimrods. Kirk's movie isn't an especially deep experience. Despite an honest attempt, I didn't find the invocations of Tommy's deceased father to add much of an emotional layer. But it's hard not to enjoy spending time with the Analog Dogs as they go from misadventure to misadventure. And, in terms of basic plotting, the ending built around Green Day's LA concert is the most successful of its episodes, ensuring you'll leave the theater feeling pretty uplifted. Nimrods releases in theaters Friday, August 14. Release Date August 6, 2026 Runtime 116 minutes Director Lee Kirk Writers Lee Kirk Producers Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, Tim Perell, Stella Bulochnikov, Michael Rapino