Chelsea Alexandra
At this year’s SXSW, a small, scrappy film with a fiercely loyal cult following brought the house down. It earned itself a standing ovation that lasted through the rolling of the end credits and well beyond. That film was Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie. If you haven’t heard of it yet, you will. Soon after the premiere at SXSW, NEON picked it up for release. What began as a low-budget web series evolved into a beloved television show on Vice, and, somehow, with the assistance of the Canadian government, became a feature film.
The film’s director, Matt Johnson, may not be a well-known name, but to those who’ve been paying attention, he’s been quietly redefining the possibilities of independent filmmaking for years. With The Dirties (2013), Operation Avalanche (2016), and BlackBerry (2023), Johnson has built a body of work that is funny, fearless, emotionally layered, and stylistically his own. His films collapse the distance between documentary and fiction, satire and sincerity. They feel like inside jokes, but they hit with unexpected emotional weight. Whether he’s faking the moon landing or dissecting Canadian tech history, Johnson brings a singular voice to every project.
If you saw his film, BlackBerry, and it didn’t already convince you, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie almost certainly will. Better yet, Johnson isn’t slowing down. He’s set to direct Tony, a bold, unconventional biopic about the late Anthony Bourdain. Starring Dominic Sessa, Tony is focusing on a formative period in 1976, long before Bourdain became a global icon. If Johnson’s past work is any indication, expect something far stranger and more human than your average rise-to-fame story. This retrospective tracks Johnson’s evolution from guerrilla filmmaker to critically acclaimed director.
The Dirties (2013)
The Dirties is a darkly comedic and deeply unsettling faux-documentary about two high school friends, Matt, played by Johnson, and Owen, played by Owen Williams. The two are obsessed with movies and making their low-budget films. The story begins with the duo working on a student project called “The Dirties,” a revenge fantasy in which they get back at the bullies who torment them at school. The project starts as a harmless one. However, as the film progresses, Matt’s fixation on the violence in the film is more than it seems.
Matt Johnson’s direction in The Dirties is bold, unsettling, and formally inventive. With this debut feature, he doesn’t just tell a story about teenagers on the brink of tragedy. He can tell the story like a teenager would. It is an impressive debut from Johnson, as well as being one of the best found footage films. The film walks a tightrope between satire and psychological horror as it deals with some dark realities of being a teenager. Much of the dialogue was unscripted, and many scenes were shot guerrilla-style in real high schools, often with real students and teachers who were unaware they were participating in a fictional film. This is very much the style of filmmaking that Johnson had and has made himself known with Nirvana the Band the Show. The camera is handheld and voyeuristic, mimicking the perspective of a student filming a school project. This style not only enhances the authenticity of the high school setting but also implicates the viewer in the unfolding events. We aren’t just watching Matt; we’re active participants in everything he does.
The Dirties deals with a lot of heavy subject matter, from bullying to school violence. The early bits of the film are funny, however, it eventually makes the shift to something darker. The tone shift is shocking, literal whiplash for the audience. Johnson wants viewers to experience the same discomfort and confusion that Owen does as Matt’s plans become more dangerous. It’s not just a story about a potential school shooter—it’s a film about how easy it is to miss the warning signs, especially when they’re wrapped in irony and pop culture references.
Operation Avalanche (2016)
Set in 1967 at the height of the Cold War and the space race, the film follows two young, overeager CIA agents, Matt Johnson and Owen Williams (both played by themselves again). The two pose as documentary filmmakers to uncover a suspected Soviet mole that is hiding within NASA’s camp. But as their undercover operation unfolds, they stumble upon a different, much larger secret: America might not be able to land a man on the moon before the Soviets. In a desperate effort to secure an American victory in the space race, the two agents embark on a plan to fake the moon landing.
Once again, Matt Johnson pushes the boundaries between documentary realism and a scripted narrative. In Operation Avalanche, he stages a period piece that doesn’t feel like one. Rather than reconstruct the 1960s with glossy production design, he uses grainy 16mm film, vintage lenses, and practical effects to create the illusion of authenticity. Staying true to his roots, Operation Avalanche is no different; many scenes were shot guerrilla-style at a real NASA facility. Johnson and Company posed as a student film crew to get some of the shots done.
At its heart, Operation Avalanche is about filmmaking. The CIA agents become filmmakers, manipulating reality with camera tricks, edits, and constructed narratives to serve a greater agenda. Operation Avalanche gives Johnson’s audience a peek behind the curtain not of movie magic but how he tackles filmmaking himself. With Operation Avalanche’s story, Johnson subtly draws a parallel between government propaganda and Hollywood illusion-making.
BlackBerry (2023)
BlackBerry is a razor-sharp tech biopic about the rise and fall of the world’s first smartphone and the Canadian company that brought it to life. The film centers around the partnership between Mike Lazaridis, played by Jay Baruchel, Doug Fregin, played by Johnson, and Jim Balsillie, played by Glen Howerton. In the late 1990s, Lazaridis and Fregin are running Research In Motion (RIM) out of a messy office filled with video game chatter and whiteboards. During this time, they are working on a two-way pager that can send and receive emails. At first no one was interested or took their idea seriously enough to invest. Then they meet Balsillie, who not only takes their idea seriously but bulldozes into their office and takes over the entire operation. From this point the film follows the rise and devastating fall of the BlackBerry company.
With BlackBerry, Johnson broke into the mainstream without sacrificing the rough-edged energy that made his earlier work so electric. Johnson brings that same offbeat energy to a more conventional narrative framework, while elevating it with confident pacing, dark humor, and emotional depth. While BlackBerry is more polished than Johnson’s previous work, he retains a raw, observational style that brings immediacy and energy to the film. The handheld camerawork, naturalistic lighting, and frequent zooms create the illusion that the audience is eavesdropping on real events. Compared to his earlier work, BlackBerry marks a maturation in Johnson’s filmmaking. He takes the skills honed on microbudget productions and applies them with discipline and purpose. Johnson proves he can move beyond pastiche or prankster energy and deliver a work of real substance. BlackBerry is Matt Johnson’s most accessible and accomplished film to date. With this film, Johnson has proven that he can evolve without compromising his voice.
