Among the many world’s most well-known cooks, Nobu Matsuhisa makes for a wildly fascinating cinematic topic — or a minimum of, he would in a extra achieved movie. From documentarian Matt Tyrnauer, “Nobu” lays out the factual bullet factors of Matsuhisa’s youth in Japan, his fledging enterprise in Peru, and ultimately, his success in LA and New York Metropolis. Nonetheless, the film usually brushes previous what might need been its most intriguing moments in favor of an unobtrusive hagiography. It approaches dramatic rigor and visible intrigue in solely the briefest of scenes, usually far too late into its runtime.

The opening pictures of “Nobu” are engaging: mouth-watering excessive closeups of freshly ready connoisseur sushi and sashimi bathed in golden mild, ready by an knowledgeable hand. Nonetheless, that is the primary and final time the meals on this meals documentary feels just like the central focus. There’s a lot speak about preparation, experimentation and the ways in which Matsuhisa broke new floor, mixing zesty Peruvian components with in any other case inflexible Japanese delicacies. As a number of meals critics word, the world-renowned chef does not do fusion. Nonetheless, there are solely so many repeated pictures of cilantro being rigorously laid on sliced yellowtail one can abdomen earlier than the concept begins to really feel rote. Maybe the film might’ve fused few extra sources of inspiration.

For a movie a couple of chef so revolutionary, “Nobu” is usually bland and conventional. It depends on acquainted talking-head interviews and the occasional archival footage with a purpose to paint its Wikipedia portrait of a culinary legend. And whereas its interviewees are sometimes members of the family, they’re simply as usually stakeholders within the world Nobu franchise, together with actor Robert De Niro. The film spends a lot time inside fancy boardrooms, and on footage of luxurious new Nobu eating places and high-end accommodations that it leaves little time for Matsuhisa himself and the struggles he’s endured. At one level, he mentions having contemplated suicide, however the movie strikes on from this topic inside seconds.

The additional “Nobu” goes on, the extra it turns into a spotlight reel of probably the most opulent areas within the restaurateur’s portfolio, with experiences certain to be out of most viewers’ attain. Past a degree, it performs like a sprawling timeline graphic of firm historical past, one thing one would possibly anticipate to see at a flagship McDonald’s. Its bare-bones, standardized strategy feels too inorganic, and too conveyor-belt-processed, to meld with Matsuhisa’s culinary fashion, or his outlook on his artwork — which the film additionally ceaselessly brushes previous. It isn’t till Matsuhisa is seen catching up with fellow celeb chef Wolfgang Puck that the film briefly options an attractive dialog on the 2 figureheads’ philosophies on meals, however this additionally barely lasts.

Matsuhisa is seen to be fluent in Japanese, English and Spanish within the movie, and his travels seem to take him via difficult studying experiences, however these are sometimes lowered to fleeting recollections supported by one previous {photograph} per location. “Nobu” affords little focus to how its topic’s travels knowledgeable his hybrid worldview, or his ceaseless, granular drive for perfection, to the purpose of driving his subordinates mad. There’s seemingly film someplace on the chopping room ground, since these concepts make temporary appearances, however that they’re seldom explored speaks to a movie whose roughest edges have been sanded down.

Matsuhisa is flesh and blood, and tragic occasions revealed late within the runtime would possibly make you would like you bought to know him higher. Nonetheless, these misfortunes circle again to concepts that the film had way back brushed previous already. In concept, following any of those threads would possibly open up intimate points {of professional} life-style and psychological well being, which have lengthy plagued the high-stress connoisseur restaurant business — and have seemingly affected Matsuhisa too. However “Nobu” is a movie whose most lucid conclusion is that its titular restaurant is value your hard-earned money. So, anytime it approaches a difficult matter, it treats emotional funding as a piping sizzling range, instinctively backs away and pours chilly water throughout any promise of feeling one thing actual.