2026, 106 mins., R
***1/2 out ****
Directed by Matt Johnson
Screenplay by Matt Johnson, Matthew Miller, Todd Bartels, and Lou Howe. Based on “Kitchen Confidential” by Anthony Bourdain.
Produced by Tim White, Trevor White, Matt Johnson, and Matthew Miller.
Cast: Dominic Sessa, Emilia Jones, Dagmara Dominczyk, Rich Sommer, Stavros Halkias, Leo Woodall, Antonio Banmderas.
“Tony” begins with a quote that sums a young Anthony Bourdain in a negative but brutally honest light. I won’t republish the quote here, although you can look it up by either googling the film’s poster, which it is prominently displayed on, or you can find in the book “Kitchen Confidential”. It is with this wisdom that the film is presented in a manner that is the precise opposite of most conventional biopics, which seek to portray their subjects with a reverence that borders on pretention, and ends it not only better but also more ingratiating.
We first meet Tony (Dominic Sessa) in a meeting with heads of the English Department at Vassar College as he makes a pitch for a literary fellowship. to write. He also has a chance meeting with a young lady named Nancy Putkoski (Emilia Jones) in a bar where he tries to pick her up by showing off his advanced vocabulary and explaining that he’s a writer. When the fellowship is rejected, he lies to both his parents and Nancy telling them that it was accepted, steals money, and heads to Provincetown to pursue Nancy. He is basically headed for the bottom as he has no plan and gets into a number of skirmishes with the locals when he gets to Provincetown.
Eventually he ends up at The Flagship a local seafood restaurant where he gets drunk and flirts with the bartender. When the employees give him a well-deserved beating, throw him out on the sidewalk, and steal the money that he stole from his parents, the owner, known only as Chef (Antonio Banderas), takes pity on him and gives Tony a hammock to sleep on his back porch. Then he becomes a dishwasher at The Flagship where he gets drawn into the hard-partying, drug-fueled lifestyle of the kitchen who actively snort cocaine in the kitchen while they’re serving customers. One of them even has a heroine habit. At one particular that he attends with a coworker, he tries to impress Nancy by trying and failing to cut an oyster while the coworker has no problem showing the confidence to get laid.
One of the most appealing attributes of “Tony” is that it treats its subject with an off-kilter but intoxicating mixture of respect and irreverence. It respects Anthony Bourdain for the person he became after this period in his life. It is irreverent because the twenty-something Tony is disrespectful, narcissistic, self-destructive, lacking in confidence and perspective, always doing the wrong thing, and he’s just not a good person at all. He earns respect through life experience and growth throughout the story.
Director Matt Johnson infuses the movie with a rambunctious energy that is also uncommon in most biopics. The movie has the feeling of a wild party which is befitting of the kind of shenanigans that Tony gets into. We’re right along for the ride and it’s one that throws us around like a freewheeling rollercoaster at times but it always remembers to breathe in the right places too.
Dominic Sessa brings the same deep-voiced vigor to this role that he did in “The Holdovers” a few years ago. His likability makes Tony kind of charming even when he’s not being so. The rest of the cast is fine though Banderas stands out as the direct, stringent, and intelligent Chef. In any other year but this one, this would be an Oscar-caliber performance.
What makes “Tony” great is that we watch as the character change from the very person that Bourdain described in the quote into the man he really wants to be. It’s an especially humble experience for the both the character and the audience.
