Cinematic Point Of View

Every once in a while a film really catches me off guard. I walked into Tony (2026), Matt Johnson‘s Anthony Bourdain biopic, braced for something standard, but what I got was so much more.

Set in 1976, a teenage Bourdain (Dominic Sessa), restless and convinced he’s meant to be a writer after failing to get a fellowship, follows Nancy (Emilia Jones), the girl he’s fallen for, to Provincetown, hoping to get closer to her over the summer. He ends up working in a small restaurant where the kitchen turns out to be nothing like he expected, and under the guiding eye of Chef (Antonio Banderas) he begrudgingly discovers he might actually be good at it.

Matt Johnson’s largely fictionalized story seeks to capture the spirit of who Anthony was before he began his journey to celebrity rather than recreate a list of biographical moments. And for some reason this totally works.

The films opens with a quote from Bourdain’s memoir Kitchen Confidential: “I was — to be frank — a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout.”

We quickly learn this to be true. The film pulls no punches.

Tony lies. He steals. He runs away from home. He drinks too much. He chooses the wrong friends. He’s damn lucky he isn’t in jail or dead. And I think that’s the takeaway. We discover how Tony has always been a charming wanderer. Always observing. Looking for direction, but unable to take it. It’s like he has no reservations and is drawn to exploring parts unknown. (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.)

At about the halfway point, things start to feel like they’re going to turn around for him and then they go the opposite direction again. Tony is his own worst enemy and this is where the movie is so different from most biographical stories. These mistakes don’t sink in. He keeps making terrible choices. almost to the very final frames. Yet the film never casts judgement and you continue to root for him. Sessa plays Tony with such a subtle innocence you can’t help it. He’s like a lost dog looking for home. This goes for most of the supporting characters too. Tony’s world is full of lost and lonely people, living with regrets and making mistake after mistake.

All of the performances are fantastic. Antonio Banderas steals the show though as Bourdain’s mentor and employer, “Chef.” He’s the “tough love” that Tony needs working behind the scenes.

In the end, if you come looking for the Bourdain of the travel shows, you’ll only find pieces of him here, which is why it was so surprising to me how well this film works. It lets you sit with Tony before everything was decided, when when everything was still ahead of him.

Just knowing where Tony’s road eventually ends also gives this film a quiet ache pulsing under the surface. To it’s credit, the film succeeds at never exploiting that tragedy. Another great surprise.

I highly, highly recommend this one.