There’s an argument to be made that Anthony Bourdain did more for the restaurant industry than anyone. It was only a matter of time before someone was gonna make a biopic about him. The joys of Tony are when Matt Johnson elects to tell the tale, giving us the origin story of the globe hopping icon we all know and love.
Turns out young Tony (Dominic Sessa) was actually someone no one would know and everyone would hate. 19 year old Anthony Bourdain was the worst kind of 1975 Vassar college dick, using obscure classics to show everyone how smart he was, and to try to pick up women like Nancy (Emilia Jones), completely out of his league. After getting rejected from a novel writing fellowship, Tony doesn’t want to be at home condescended to by his brilliant mother Gladys (Dagmara Domińczyk). With nowhere better to go, he remembers Nancy said she was going to Provincetown, Massachusetts for the summer. Tony bolts, gets rejected, and ends up broke at the feet of a kind chef (Antonio Banderas) who takes pity on the asshole kid, throws some water on him to wake up, and offers him the open busboy job in his kitchen.
Tony is at its best when its Anthony Bourdain’s Adventureland. I could have spent 90 of those 100 minutes in Provincetown inside that kitchen, with chef and Tony and the rest of the motley crew: Stavros (Stavros Halkias), Sal (Leo Woodall), Tyrone (Michael Jibrin), Mary (Monica Raymund), et al. Johnson rightly targets this story as a search for purpose, as young Tony is clinging onto the life he wants but can’t have, presented with one he doesn’t want, but will end up growing on him. The arc is the classic coming of age tale: breaking down the smarmy douchebag and rebuilding him in a new image in the summer vacation he’ll never forget. The big trio in the kitchen cast really does right by the Bourdains too. Dominic Sessa has been on this character corner for a while now, but really turns Tony into his own creation, giving us the right mixture of cocky with angry vulnerability. Antonio Banderas is lovely and charming as ever as the angel on Tony’s shoulder, giving the boy insight into one way to live the restaurant life. Conversely, Leo Woodall is Tony’s devil; he’s so good with his supernova supporting performance I wonder if perhaps we’ll remember this movie more for him than for Sessa.
I do wonder of the Bourdain estate and studio notes took this movie away from Johnson a little bit. Instead of living in that kitchen, Tony the movie takes all sorts of stereotypical scenes and cliches like one of those tourist bus traps. Some stops are fun: like the big first summer party scene. But most other stops are not. The movie leans WAY too hard into the 1975 of it all, happily turning back the clock on societal progression. Why is there a black chef in the kitchen and he never speaks? That’s…crazy? Why cast him at all then? Emilia Jones’s Nancy is a contender for manic pixie dream girl hall of fame: extremely beautiful and impossibly into this douchenozzle of a prick despite all logic and reason; Tony can’t even be a good bad boy with Leo Woodall hunking it up right next to him. I’m pretty sure the character should have been a 3 minute cameo and then never seen again to make Tony a better film. Instead, the movie hinges on their relationship, meaning this script is built on a sand foundation that it keeps piling stupid character choices onto, tumbling like a deck of cards when we finally get there.
But I’m done giving Matt Johnson an ass kicking like Bourdain got on his summer on Provincetown. Over time, I’m gonna forget all the b plot stupidity and remember the good times I had with Dominic Sessa, Antonio Banderas, and Leo Woodall. And Provincetown, another of those beautiful seaside New England towns I only hear about like myths in flyover country, and now only hope I get a chance to see on a beautiful summer weekend one day.