"Nobu" with Matt Tyrnauer

Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers

It all starts with the fish. In director Matt Tyrnauer’s (“Carville, Winning is Everything, Stupid”) delectable and insightful new documentary “Nobu,” we are reminded of this fact when Nobu himself, the man behind the restaurant empire that shares his name, reels in a fish, skins, slices and serves it right on the boat to friends and family. It is one of many revelatory scenes that, taken as a whole, peel back the layers of Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa’s life and his long journey to re-define sushi for the modern world.

Matt joins Ken on the pod to shed light on his observational approach to documentary portraiture and to explore the unique and ever-expanding Nobu style. Rather than a straight line to success, Nobu’s story is one of early struggles, crushing failures and constant attention to detail. From a tense scene featuring an executive chef struggling to reproduce one of Nobu’s signature dishes to a humdrum meeting of Nobu’s business partners (including the actor and Nobu partner Robert De Niro in a surprising and riveting star turn) that suddenly turns contentious, “Nobu” not only spotlights the talents of a game-changing chef, but once again reminds us why the hard-earned observational approach is as satisfying as a perfectly prepared plate of sushi.

“Nobu” is being released by Vertical in theaters in NY on June 27th and in cities nationwide beginning July 4th.

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