It’s rare for a director to release two movies in six months but kudos to Canadian Matt Johnson who is having a big year after the cult-like release of Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie back in February.  While that was an outlandish, off-the-wall comedy, Tony is a more conventional outing which digs into the life of chef-turned-celebrity Anthony Bourdain.  At the time of his death in 2018, Bourdain had built a huge international following which had kickstarted two decades earlier with the publication of best-selling memoir, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.

The four screenwriters credited in Tony have taken a narrow focus.  It’s centred on just a single year of Bourdain’s life in 1975.  He was an aimless teenager, he had zero interest in food, and he had no idea the acronym “CIA” also referred to the Culinary Institute of America.  Drawing from the book and other interviews, this biopic is best described as a loose, fictionalised version of events.  Some characters never existed in real life, such as the mentoring chef played by Antonio Banderas (Pain and Glory), but the filmmakers wanted to create a movie which explores Bourdain’s messy personality as opposed to being precise with facts.

After his breakout performance in The Holdovers, the curly-haired Dominic Sessa steps into the rugged shoes of the title character.  He portrays Bourdain as not-so-likeable.  He’s an arrogant, lying, lazy individual who drinks booze and snorts cocaine.  He yearns to be a writer and after missing out on a scholarship at Vassar College, he travels to Providence, Rhode Island in search of romance.  When that too goes bust, he takes a dead-end job washing dishes in the shabby kitchen of a local seafood restaurant which offers little more than “fast food”.

I was underwhelmed by the chosen timeframe.  Given all that happened across Bourdain’s life, including his rise to stardom and ultimate suicide, I wanted more than a simple coming-of-age tale.  It gets repetitive with certain elements such as his endless pursuit of a girl named Nancy (Jones) and sleeping on the head chef’s porch (complete with daily “water splashings”).  Conversely, it skims over the distant, rebellious connection he had with his parents.  As a lover of great food, I also wish the film featured more cooking!

In the same vein as Julia Child and Wolfgang Puck, Anthony Bourdain left an indelible impression on the culinary world.  While it’s worth a look, I’m not sure Tony is as impactful.