TIFF’23: Hate to Love Nickelback is a film only for those who love Nickelback

Nickelback is one of the more popular rock bands of the 2000s, selling out multiple stadium tours and selling several platinum records. But if you asked any random person on the street, while some might know their songs many of them would remember the hate for the band instead. They were a uniquely hated group, which their fans would say was incredibly unfair. But safe to say, that hate is the most interesting thing about the band because there’s no band with an intense hate towards them like Nickelback.

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So with a name like Hate to Love: Nickelback, one would assume that this documentary is specifically about the hate the band from Alberta endured. But this film is not about that, instead going for a more generic look at the band’s entire career. Fans of Nickelback will greatly enjoy learning more about Chad and Mike Kroeger, Ryan Peake, and Daniel Adair.

This documentary does go deep in the history of the band members, but only in as far as their bias towards themselves will allow. It gives focus to a lot of tough times, such as Adair’s nerve issues during the pandemic and Chad’s criminal tendencies during his youth. But it’s clear that the band members themselves are picking the topics they want to talk about. Chad’s marriage to fellow musician Avril Lavigne is briefly mentioned, but never focused on. It ultimately feels like a sanitized episode of Behind the Music, and it doesn’t make a good case for existing as a documentary film on its own.

While the hate towards the band is touched on, it’s only for about 10 minutes of its feature-length runtime. And the film focuses more on the band’s reaction to the hate, with Chad noting that as the face of the band he struggled a lot with his mental health seeing this constant hate towards him. But again, the band, their associates and their fans are the only people shown. This is a film made for people who think the hate is unfair.

But what about those who did hate on Nickelback, whether it was for the meme or because they genuinely couldn’t stand their mainstream rock music? In a film focusing on a band mostly known for the intense hate towards them, who are the people hating them? This film’s biggest issue is that it doesn’t look for those people, instead asking only the band and the people who worked with them for their take on it. The film is not objective in its coverage, at times it does feel like it’s Nickelback propaganda.

There are fun tidbits, and lots of great transitions especially in the early parts of the film showing their history into success. But this film is great proof as to why films about celebrities should not be made with the celebrities involved. It becomes biased, it becomes about showing the perspective of the celebrity over anything else. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s not the whole thing. Nickelback is a band that needs more coverage regarding their intense negative reaction, because that’s what made them stand out.

If you’re a fan of Nickelback, you will probably get a kick out of this film. But if you are apathetic towards them or a full on hater and you watch this film, you’ll find yourself wondering how to get the last 90 minutes of your life back. This film gets a 2/5.