The Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary trailer is filled with meth, magic, and mayhem
One of the most intriguing titles to come out of this year’s Sundance film festival features one of recent history’s most intriguing performers: The Amazing Johnathan. Like the man himself, the first trailer for The Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary is pretty wild: After receiving a deadly diagnosis and being given a year to live, the rebellious and irreverent magician embarks on his final tour with filmmaker Ben Berman in tow. What ensues is, apparently, an anarchic tour filled with magic, meth, and mayhem. And three years after receiving his diagnosis, the Amazing Jonathan is still alive. Is he actually sick? What’s really real? Maybe the greatest trick the Amazing Johnathan ever pulled was this documentary, which hits select theaters and Hulu on August 16.
Based on the trailer alone, The Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary looks like it could be the next Catfish: A filmmaker who finds himself intimately intertwined with his subject; an exploration of the very nature of reality; twists and turns, et al. The doc also features interviews with the Amazing Johnathan’s peers and famous fans, including Weird Al Yankovic and Eric Andre—the latter of whom says he finds the magician’s abuse of meth understandable, given his situation.
Here’s the official synopsis from Hulu:
The Amazing Johnathan Documentary begins as a seemingly ordinary profile following the final tour of a dying magician, but becomes an unexpected and increasingly bizarre journey as filmmaker Ben Berman struggles to separate truth from illusion.