Coming-of-age stories resonate with us in a way that few others do, regardless of which stage of life we’re in as we watch them. As we grow up, they offer us a point of reference against our own experiences, allowing us to better understand our peers and/or see our own dilemmas reflected back at us on screen, often allowing us to laugh about them in the process. As we grow old, they serve as a way to reflect back on our experiences, sometimes wistfully other times with a twinge of regret or sadness—and then hopefully catharsis. Proving that even punk rockers aren’t immune to the genre’s effects, hit band Green Day teamed up with writer / director Lee Kirk to produce the surprisingly sweet Nimrods, which doesn’t really break any new ground as far as these movies go but is still a fun and rewarding watch, especially for fans of the trio.

Tommy (Mason Thames) and his older brother Wayne (Keen Ruffalo) have a strained relationship after the death of their father. Their mom (Jenna Fischer), herself still struggling with the loss, tries to keep the house running, but the boys seem to only begrudgingly abide each other, preferring pranks to any real communication.

After one such prank leaves Wayne trapped on the roof, he enlists his friend Keith (Ignacio Diaz-Silverio) to pose as Tré Cool from Green Day and call Tommy to offer his band The Analog Dogs—with friends Fred (Kylr Coffman) and Chad (Ryan Foust)—the opening slot in their special New Year’s Eve concert in Los Angeles. Having long idolized the band, Tommy is too excited to contemplate the unlikelihood of the call being real and instantly hatches a plan to get from Kansas to LA, launching the buddies on a road trip à la National Lampoon’s Vacation and The Blues Brothers in which they encounter a variety of mishaps and characters along the way to their perhaps over-idealized destination.

While their music features heavily throughout the movie and many of the encounters the boys’ experience are purportedly based on their own true stories, Green Day themselves are only rarely on screen. The trio of friends serving as their stand-ins are so well-cast however, that it hardly matters. Some of what the movie considers “punk” amounts to just being an asshole (and maybe that is what being punk is, I really wouldn’t know), but thanks to Thames’ easy-going charm, Coffman’s infectious, rambunctious energy, and Foust’s endearing nebbishness, it’s easy enough to fall under the story’s spell.

The different stops they make on their journey don’t really live up to any of those found in the movie’s influences, but nor are they boring. The celebrities making cameos fully commit to their bits, with Fred Armisen stealing the show as usual, and they largely contain a healthy dose of the film’s unexpected, rose-colored nostalgia and joy.

While these characters are all going through their own emotional struggles that sometimes bubble up to the surface, the overall vibe here is happiness. Stuffed full of great songs, pleasantly relaxed performances, camaraderie, and fun, with just a dash of the anarchic spirit found in the classic comedies that inspired it, Nimrods might just be the feel-good comedy of the Summer. Given the state of things, maybe a sense of almost relentless positivity is what’s really punk right now. ★★★½

Rated R for language throughout, teen drug use and drinking, and some sexual references.