A mouth-watering however totally flavorless documentary about some of the acclaimed sushi cooks on the earth (and arguably probably the most well-known), Matt Tyrnauer’s “Nobu” is such a fawning portrait of Nobu Matsuhisa that it feels prefer it ought to solely be accessible to look at on a DVD bought on the reward retailers within the restaurateur’s inns.
To that time, the easy proven fact that Matsuhisa’s empire has grown to embody inns is among the solely issues I discovered from this generously portioned movie about his life, which is sweeter and fewer satisfying than Nobu’s signature dish of black cod in three-day-old miso paste, even when it takes nearly as lengthy to marinate.
Not that I’ve really had Nobu’s signature dish, or any of its others, for that matter. As will possible be the case for many viewers, Tyrnaeur’s love letter to Matsuhisa is the closest I’ll ever get to consuming at considered one of Nobu’s 56 completely different places — the chef’s lifelong dedication to the freshest components doesn’t come low-cost, and this movie about him takes pains to insist that hyper-franchising the model has diminished its namesake’s emphasis on high quality.
In that context, it’s arduous to not take pleasure in drooling over this documentary’s considerable meals porn, even when Tyrnauer appears extra invested within the way of life porn that Matsuhisa is completely satisfied to flaunt in his mid-70s (I rolled my eyes at his personal jet, solely to bug them out on the stunning sushi bars he’s constructed inside all his numerous homes). That emphasis doesn’t fairly sq. with the ethos of Matsuhisa’s eating places, the place sushi is supposed to be the star of the present and the sushi bars are barely elevated above the eating room, like a stage. Nevertheless, it does align with the chef’s pure inclination towards the finer issues in life. In some methods, “Nobu” is extra like “Jiro Desires of Sushi” than another movie ever made. In others, it appears completely different as could possibly be.
Matsuhisa is actually much more extroverted and gregarious than Jiro Ono, to the purpose that it’s arduous to inform if Tyrnaeur (“The place’s My Roy Cohn?”) got down to make a puff piece, or if he was charmed into submission by his topic alongside the best way. Regardless of the case, the man is a good dangle, and “Nobu” excels within the uncommon moments when it eschews the overcooked trappings of its subgenre — the breathy quotes concerning the that means of meals, the genuflective speed-run by way of the foremost occasions of a chef’s life, the effusive speaking heads who liken them to Picasso — in favor of a extra pure glimpse on the man behind the mononym.
Which isn’t to say that Matsuhisa’s story is uninteresting; whereas this explicit telling of it is likely to be far too breezy for its personal good, his journey from failure to success — from Japan to Peru, Anchorage, after which lastly Los Angeles, the place he met his most loyal buyer and future enterprise associate Robert De Niro — is a effective story of self-belief within the face of significant setbacks. He credit his spouse for saving him. Their daughter speaks effectively concerning the uncommon however fiercely loving household her dad and mom created alongside their fortune.
The movie’s second half even makes a few efforts to complicate that triumph, each of which point out the extra substantive documentaries that Tyrnaeur may need made as a substitute. In a single thread, Matsuhisa laments the suicide of his oldest pal, and blames himself for not being extra accessible once they wanted his assist. In one other, Tyrnaeur’s digicam is a fly on the wall throughout a contentious enterprise assembly concerning the newest growth of Nobu. To invoke Frederick Wiseman right here would overinflate this film’s endurance for sitting with such issues, however the scene is strikingly “actual” within the context of a movie that in any other case feels hyper-constructed (it’s attainable that “Cindy Rice” inspiration Cindy Crawford simply occurred to swing by Nobu when cameras have been rolling, however I are inclined to doubt it), and it will get a jolt of recent power from an agitated De Niro, who hasn’t been this animated on digicam in years.
However “Nobu” isn’t a lot focused on the way forward for Matsuhisa’s enterprise, or within the looming specter of his retirement. Quite the opposite, this movie is content material to supply a pleasant and shiny celebration of a likable man who stumbled into nice success by sticking to his childhood dream of constructing good sushi, and have become a model unto himself someplace alongside the best way. Tyrnauer’s doc is little greater than an extension of — along with an commercial for — that model, and, for higher or worse, it actually leaves you hungry for extra by the point it’s over.
Grade: C+
Vertical will launch “Nobu” in NYC on Friday, June 27. A nationwide rollout will start on Wednesday, July 2.
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