Green Day's 'nimrods' Is A Rowdy Punk Road Movie. No Phones, No Parents, Just Chaos

Green Day’s caller film, “Nimrods,” believes successful nan enduring powerfulness of a achromatic leather conflict jacket.

In 1 poignant early scene, Jenna Fischer’s characteristic pulls that well-worn garment retired of a container to springiness to her teenage boy Tommy, a young punk rocker astir to deed nan roadworthy to L.A. to unfastened (he thinks) for Green Day astatine nan Hollywood Palladium. The kid chokes up. The overgarment belonged to his precocious father, whom he remembers hovering complete a grounds player, base songs from a much thrilling world. He dons it for illustration armor for nan chaos to come.

“There is that point astir nan leather jacket, wherever it carries truthful overmuch much weight because he’s a musician and his dad’s 1 too,” said Green Day’s vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong. “We spot families coming to Green Day shows now — two, 3 generations. It’s astonishing to spot a young personification that’s 14 years aged that gets into ‘Dookie’ for nan very first time, a grounds that’s complete 30 years old. You’re ever trying to make euphony that you’re capable to play successful nan future. We were ever benignant of aged souls successful that way.”

Green Day’s caller characteristic film, written and directed pinch Lee Kirk, is an old-soul roadworthy travel movie. “Nimrods,” retired Aug. 14 successful theaters, is simply a smitten, profane yet often moving snapshot of a young set striking retired connected their own, drawn from Green Day’s gritty beginnings successful nan East Bay punk segment of nan ‘80s and ‘90s.

In a clip erstwhile teen life is subsumed by alienating integer exertion and an understandable risk-aversion, “Nimrods” takes nan yearnings of its young punks seriously.

“You person to beryllium illusion to beryllium successful a band,” Armstrong said. “It takes a definite benignant of dreamer. I retrieve trying to get that first gig. It was like, ‘Oh, my God, if we could only get retired of this surviving room and past play our first show astatine Gilman.”

“That was nan point we had that we could telephone our own,” added bassist Mike Dirnt. “When group are playing euphony together astatine a young age, that whitethorn beryllium each that they have, but that’s their affectional vessel. That’s their out.”

Film head and writer Lee Kirk, acold left, pinch Green Day’s Tré Cool, Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

“Nimrods” is not a Green Day biopic, though nan trio of young actors playing nan set Analog Dogs (Mason Thames, Kylr Coffman and Ryan Foust) do evoke nan band’s wiseacre gestalt, and Green Day’s Armstrong, Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool make a fewer knowing cameos.

It’s a narrative-driven communicative indebted to nan Ramones’ “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School” and nan Who’s “Quadrophenia,” pursuing nan teen set to L.A. arsenic its members naively judge they’ve scored nan gig of a life (actually, a prank pulled by an older brother). The movie has nan weed-stinky vibe of scruffy teen hangout flicks for illustration “Dazed & Confused” and “SLC Punk,” pinch surrealist, winking circuit play akin to Charli XCX’s caller movie “The Moment.”

Green Day’s decade-spanning catalog of spit-flecked pop-punk forms some nan soundtrack and nan bosom of nan movie. “They constitute songs astir truthful galore different emotions, truthful it really lends itself erstwhile you’re building a story,” Kirk said.

“Some worldly for illustration ‘Basket Case’ would beryllium benignant of obvious, but I was really amazed astatine really good nan heavy cuts came in,” Armstrong said. “At 1 scene, nan car is driving down nan highway, and you perceive a opus called ‘Haushinka,’ which was unexpected, but it fresh truthful perfectly. We really put that opus backmost into our group list.”

Yet Kirk, a writer-director who antecedently formed Armstrong successful nan 2016 aging-punk drama “Ordinary World,” wrote nan movie arsenic a much cosmopolitan communicative of a young set throwing be aware to nan upwind while trying to heal a fractured blue-collar family successful nan suburban midwest.

“The movie was astir a family going done a crisis, astir this kid trying to find trying to find his organization and trying to reconcile pinch his family,” Kirk said. (He’s joined to Fischer, champion known from “The Office,” who nails a mini but dryly funny domiciled here.) Armstrong’s boy wrote overmuch of nan original euphony for nan movie, and Green Day’s catalog — particularly resonant present aft Armstrong’s caller sobriety astatine nan behest of his family — binds nan movie’s rebellions and reconciliations.

“When personification says they had a unsmooth infinitesimal successful their life, for illustration a father-daughter business wherever nan begetter was sick, and they were like, ‘Your opus was maine and my dad’s song, it really sewage america done a batch of stuff,’ it’s a awesome feeling,” Armstrong said. “It’s humbling. Music biz worldly is not nan nosy part, but past thing will travel up and you go, ‘OK, now that’s that’s why I do this.’ ”

Billie Joe Armstrong and Green Day execute arsenic headliners astatine Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival connected April 12, 2025.

(Amy Harris / Invision / AP)

The movie is seeded pinch nods to Green Day lore, scripted complete agelong sessions riffing pinch nan set complete its circuit catastrophes. Cool recalled nan mayhem of a 1991 European wintertime circuit erstwhile nan set played 64 shows successful 3 months.

“The van caught connected fire, but that doesn’t deter you from conscionable wanting to jump successful and get to nan adjacent town,“ he said.

One segment astatine a menacing biker barroom was inspired by a van breakdown successful San Luis Obispo, wherever Green Day had to play 2 impromptu shows successful 3 days to salary backmost nan crusty punk mechanic who fixed it. Another harkens to Green Day’s famously mud-soaked Woodstock ’94 set.

“People had been miserable for for illustration 3 days, stuck successful nan mud. Then it became this nosy relationship pinch nan crowd, throwing mud and hay backmost and forth. Then it became a melee. Then it became a elephantine brawl connected stage,” Dirnt said. “That was nan constituent wherever I was like, ‘Oh, wow, we’re really large now.’ That was nan point that put it complete nan edge.”

With its young set cutting demos connected a four-track cassette recorder, “Nimrods” could person been group successful 2026, 1996 aliases 1976 — phones and societal media are practically nonexistent successful nan plot. One pivotal infinitesimal comes erstwhile Mckenna Grace’s punk-singer characteristic hands Tommy a charmingly Xeroxed flyer to a storage gig and gives retired her telephone number alternatively than a Snapchat handle.

“The situation was to make a movie for generations of Green Day fans, truthful I decided that a nosy measurement to do that is if Tommy is into analog. He’s into vinyl, he records connected a four-track, he’s not connected societal media,” Kirk said. “I was trying to fig retired really to get free of nan phones. It opened nan doorway for america to person this movie that is group successful coming day, but feels for illustration it’s possibly 1992 and 2026. The thought was to make a movie that feels benignant of timeless, that a feline who’s 58 tin subordinate to arsenic good arsenic a 14-year-old kid.”

After days of seedy mayhem getting to L.A. (one gruesome segment pinch Fred Armisen almost takes it into scary terrain), nan set ends up astatine a Green Day gig astatine nan Palladium: Not nan 1 Analog Dogs had hoped for but a life-changing nighttime nonetheless. It’s difficult not to locomotion retired of “Nimrods” pinch a small spark of desire to commencement a punk set and deed nan roadworthy pinch your buddies.

Hopefully nan procreation of Gen Z musicians depicted successful nan movie still lust complete nan chance to try, moreover arsenic a wretched system makes road-dogging harder coming while integer fame beckons instead.

“That’s benignant of nan measurement a DIY web is expected to activity — everybody’s helping each different out,” Armstrong said. “We would ever inquire arsenic we were connected stage, ‘Does anybody person a spot that we could stay?’ And, judge enough, personification would measurement up, each azygous time. But I’m judge it’s harder now. Gas was a batch cheaper then.”

Green Day performs astatine Super Bowl LX successful Santa Clara connected Feb. 8. The set caught a small flak for its “American Idiot” performance.

(Charlie Riedel / Associated Press)

The modern world is off-stage successful “Nimrods,” but Green Day has been much astatine nan forefront recently. They headlined Coachella successful 2025, a uncommon dense stone set to apical nan astir influential show successful nan U.S., delivering a raucous and thrashing group dissimilar immoderate successful nan past decade of Coachella headliners.

“We conscionable wanted to spell up location and footwear everybody’s ass, and that was what we did, comprehensively,’ Armstrong said, laughing.

Armstrong will lead a Ramones 50th day all-star set (with Travis Barker, Rancid’s Tim Armstrong, and Ramones bassist C.J. Ramone) astatine a tribute show astatine Hollywood Forever Aug. 30. Green Day precocious opened nan Super Bowl conscionable extracurricular its Bay Area hometown, kicking disconnected earlier Bad Bunny played a historical halftime show. Green Day caught a small flak for its “American Idiot” performance, wherever nan outspoken left-leaning enactment typically updates nan lyrics to lambast President Trump, arsenic they did George W. Bush 2 decades ago, but demurred connected there.

The set members said they considered what to do astatine that infinitesimal of nationalist prominence but that they hoped nan euphony would speak for itself.

“It’s a platform, but besides sometimes, it conscionable doesn’t consciousness right,” Armstrong said. “I didn’t want to get successful nan measurement of Bad Bunny because of what was going connected pinch ICE, wherever his connection was overmuch much powerful. I deliberation we would person travel crossed arsenic being a spot much belligerent.”

As nan U.S. slinks toward nan midterms during ongoing crises pinch nan Iran war, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ostentation and beyond, Green Day is atop a dwindling people of stadium bands capable to credibly speak to younger and older audiences. It’s a domiciled they didn’t activity retired but will clasp if nan kids of “Nimrods” are going to person a future.

“When we first started, we were not astir authorities astatine all, moreover though we came from a very outspoken scene,” Armstrong said. “But past ‘American Idiot’ came up retired of nowhere, done pinch bosom from a spot of full disorder astir why nan world is changing into this acheronian and disfigured place. I deliberation that rings true, particularly correct now. It’s like, ‘We went to nan parkland today, we brought nan dogs, it was truthful great, and, oh, yeah, Trump conscionable bombed Iran.’ How tin everything beryllium truthful normal and perfectly insane astatine nan aforesaid time?”