One of the most prominent independent filmmakers of the modern era, Matt Johnson has grown especially popular in recent years thanks to his distinct pseudo-documentary style and the overwhelming charm in his feature films. The Canadian filmmaker has had a dedicated yet niche fanbase since his early work on the cult-classic web series Nirvanna the Band the Show, but recent films have skyrocketed his appeal and recognition among moviegoers.
With only 5 feature films to his name, Johnson continues to carve out and establish his signature style and appeal as he begins working with rising stars and Hollywood legends alike. While not immediately recognizable to the average moviegoer, those familiar with his work will be quick to sing its strengths from the rooftops, calling him one of the most distinct and individual voices in modern film. There’s a genuine argument to be made for these films to be ranked in any order, as they are all great and have their own strengths, with this specific ranking tapping into the larger trends of their reception.
5
‘Operation Avalanche’ (2016)
Image via Lionsgate Premiere
It feels wrong to deem one of Johnson’s films to be the worst, but if any film is going to hold the mantle of his weakest cinematic offering, it sadly has to be Operation Avalanche. It’s a genuine shame, as the film is still an incredibly underrated thriller, yet every other film in Johnson’s filmography is breaking new ground and truly exceptional in its execution. The film follows a group of CIA agents sent to investigate NASA in 1967 while posing as a documentary crew, in the process putting into motion the infamous conspiracy of faking the moon landing.
The greatest strength of Operation Avalanche is how it catches the audience off guard with its tone and style, starting with a classic, lighthearted Johnson romp before delving into the dark reality of the consequences of conspiracy. Sadly, part of these strengths feel reliant on a knowledge of Johnson’s filmmaking style in able to truly appreciate it. Still, the low-budget filmmaking is extremely impressive, making the most of the limited resources for a sense of renegade filmmaking that Johnson excels at.
4
‘Tony’ (2026)
Image via A24, Everett Collection
The most recent release from Johnson’s filmography (outside of a Stavros Halkias comedy special), Tony employs a style and approach unlike any other film that Johnson has directed. This is largely due to the fact that it’s the only film of Johnson’s where he isn’t playing a character himself, as well as the only one of his films to not have the pseudo-documentary visual style of cinematographer Jared Raab. Still, different doesn’t necessarily mean worse, as Johnson’s take on a coming-of-age biopic about Anthony Bourdain is still rife with his signature hallmarks of filmmaking and storytelling.
Tony excels as a biopic because it strives to be distinctly different from being a Wikipedia page of Bourdain’s achievements, instead telling a story of growth and finding one’s purpose in the world through the stupidity and pompous ego of youth. It’s a truly great coming-of-age film that stands on its own even outside of the connection to one of the world’s most prolific culinary figures, able to carve out its own identity thanks to Johnson’s distinct style. It’s a promising turn for Johnson’s career that shows that he can create and adapt his style to a more traditional filmmaking style for great success.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don’t just entertain — they leave something behind.
02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?
03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
05
What do you want from a film’s ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what’s even possible.
07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
3
‘BlackBerry’ (2023)
Jay Baruchel testing out tech in BlackberryImage via IFC Films
While most of the modern fervor and excitement for Johnson in the modern age is centered around his films of the past year, this inherent fervor and growing appreciation for the director in the modern age can be traced back to BlackBerry, arguably the best of the many brand biopics of 2023. The film tells the story of the cell phone brand, following its unlikely rise to success as well as its catastrophic fall into absolute obscurity. Unlike Tony, which largely has the look and feel of a more traditional biopic, BlackBerry overwhelmingly utilizes the Johnson style of fly-on-the-wall filmmaking to make the film one-of-a-kind among other corporate biopics.
It also marked the first time that Johnson worked with more prominent-name actors outside of his frequent collaborators, with the likes of Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, and Cary Elwes adding their strengths to this highly entertaining story. While many other biopics are quick to overly praise their subjects, BlackBerry cuts to the heart of not just what made the company a success, but the inherent flaws and mistakes that led to its inevitable failure. The film managed to be a real breakout point for Johnson’s career, even being the most nominated film in the history of the Canadian Screen Awards as well as the most awarded title in their history.
2
‘The Dirties’ (2013)
Two teens leaning against a wallImage via Phase 4 Films
Johnson’s debut feature film, The Dirties, is the type of hilarious yet sickeningly dark and poignant high school film that has only grown more striking and powerful in its filmmaking in the time since its release. It shows that even in the early days of his career, Johnson’s vision and knack for filmmaking shine through seamlessly with a style of filmmaking incredibly ahead of its time. The film follows a duo of best friends who begin making a movie about them getting revenge on their bullies, with the jokes starting to take a dark turn as the act of making the film begins to turn into plans for a school shooting.
For a storyline and concept that is so bleak and excessively dark in nature, Johnson continuously finds ways to stay upbeat in his filmmaking and dark humor without ever taking away from the gravitas of the story at hand. Its low-budget filmmaking is exceptionally impressive as well, constantly blurring the lines of what is and isn’t real, with some people on-screen not even aware that they’re in a movie. It’s about as perfect of a debut film as a filmmaker can ask for, and has stood as the clear opus of Johnson’s filmography until just this past year.
1
‘Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie’ (2026)
Image via NEON
Considering the fact that Johnson had been working on various Nirvanna the Band stories ever since the 2000s, it makes perfect sense that the eventual feature film adaptation, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, would be the greatest movie that he’s directed so far. This wild and hilarious time travel comedy sees the classic strengths of Johnson’s filmmaking style brought to their absolute extremes, with miraculous setpieces and a filmmaking style that constantly has the audience questioning how they managed to make it. It’s so exceptional in its filmmaking that it doesn’t even require any prior knowledge or viewing of previous Nirvanna the Band content, working exceptionally well as its own standalone comedy.
It sees the classic duo of Matt and Jay trying to book a show at the Rivoli theater, only for their plans to go massively awry as they accidentally travel back in time to the year 2008. This story of camaraderie and long-lasting friendship is constantly surprising and delighting the audience with its ingenious sense of comedy and wit. It easily stands as one of the best comedy movies of the 2020s so far and will certainly be the work of art that defines Johnson’s legacy as his career continues to grow and evolve.
