Tony tells the story of Anthony Bourdain’s metamorphosis, from callow youth to not-so-callow youth. This is no-soup-to-nuts biography but a strictly Bourdain: the Early Years offer, caterpillar to chrysalis, if you like, both of which the older, omnivorous Bourdain would doubtless have eaten on camera.
Even if you don’t know Bourdain there is something for you here – the tender story of a boy becoming a man, a punk growing up, a rebellious youth realising he’s actually being a bit of a twat with his relentless smartassery. If you do know Bourdain, there is also something here, because Tony covers the pre-fame Bourdain, before the book Kitchen Confidential rocketed him into a new life, into writing and eventually a TV career as a globe-trotting, rock’n’roll culinary maverick. Decades down the line Bourdain would eventually wash up on the shores of the weaknesses Matt Johnson’s film is all about, but those years are another story for another film.
This is resolutely the “how it all happened” volume, following teenage would-be writer Tony on his journey to self-realisation. “I was – to be frank – a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, and badly in need of a good ass-kicking.” A quote from Kitchen Confidential sets the scene before we get to see cocky young Tony – always Tony, to family, friends, everyone – messing up his interview at Vassar before he heads out to Cape Cod for the summer, to find the hot girl from school and pursue what he thinks is the beginning of a potentially explosive relationship.
When Tony (Dominic Sessa) finally arrives in the realm of boardwalks, sunshine and crab shacks, he discovers that Nancy (Emilia Jones) is working in a food joint, and – thwarted – is already in a relationship with some older dude. Despondent, he gets drunk, gets into a fight and loses all his money. Eventually he winds up washing dishes as a way of paying his fare back home. This, though he doesn’t know it, is the turning point in Tony’s life, rinsing slop off dirty plates while the eatery’s gruff but ultimately kindly patron, known only as Chef, gradually takes him under his wing.
It is a fairy tale, with Tony going to the ball thanks to the ministrations of Chef, a fairy chefmeister played by Antonio Banderas with self-effacing grizzled charm.
The warmth just rolls off Banderas in one of those performances that deserves awards but won’t get any. The performances are all good, though. Sessa’s brattish but callow Tony, simultaneously apologetic but full of himself, Leo Woodall as a shagging, coke-snorting chef in the busy kitchen. Emilia Jones exactly the sort of girl you’d travel a long way to get within sight of.
Matt Johnson also did Blackberry, and turned a spreadsheet about a company losing its pole position in the smartphone market into an unusually engaging – gripping in fact – but unlikely hit, one of the best films of 2023.
He works the same magic here, conjuring up the period with details plus vibes. This is the mid-1970s of abandon, when the future didn’t yet seem closed off but the portal was already narrowing. In hazy orange tones, Johnson presents an era of easy sex, lots of drugs and no worries about Aids, to a soundtrack full of the sort of music you can imagine Bourdain actually liking – Jonathan Richman, Brian Eno, Karen Dalton.
At times Tony is like one of the good episodes of The Bear – the aggressive camaraderie of the kitchen, the frenzy as the orders come in and the plates of food roll out. The work-hard/play-hard atmosphere that would lead Tony into cocaine and heroin… and ultimately into rehab (another story for another day).
Tony, it turns out, will get to kiss the enchanted princess, but there are stumbles along the way. As the film ends, decisions having been taken, Tony is being interviewed for a place on a prestigious cooking course. The familiar image of the Bourdain of the future is finally beginning to emerge. What’s your name, the interviewers ask him. A pause as he thinks for a second – “Anthony… Bourdain”, he replies. “Tony” was just the starter. The main course has finally arrived.
Tony – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2026
