Dominic Sessa plays a young Anthony Bourdain at the start of his introduction to the culinary world as he pursues the girl who would become his first wife from director Matt Johnson
TONY (2026)
★★★ & 1/2 ★ of ★★★★★ stars
Anthony Bourdain and his legacy are one that has transcended his role as a travel correspondent and celebrity chef. In the years since his tragic passing, Bourdain has largely become mythologized as a Will Rogers or Mark Twain sort of folk hero. A man who spoke his heart and mind and got to go all over the world and be unapologetically his authentic self. He cursed, he loves, he ate with presidents and lives a life many envy. But, before all of that, he was a college dropout who went to Provincetown, Massachusetts to follow the girl he would one day marry in Nancy Putkoski (as portrayed here by Emilia Jones). The young Tony Bourdain, here played by Dominic Sessa, styles himself a writer and follows Nancy to Cape Cod for the summer after failing to win a writing scholarship. The application for this scholarship is him pitching a novel that he would write, a Bildungsroman that would be a coming of age story for the protagonist – which is exactly what this film is; a coming of age story that shows how Bourdain became something of what we would see him be one day, a chef whose life experiences are what drew us to him.
Bourdain makes a fool of himself as a drunk at a local restaurant in Provincetown hitting on a waitress and he gets thrown out on his ass by one of the cooks and is subsequently robbed in the process. He ends up waking up on the front porch of the restaurant’s unnamed Chef, played by Antonio Banderas, who offers him a job as a dishwasher. All the while, Tony continues to try and make a play for Nancy, as he comes under the mentorship of the restaurant’s rag tag bunch of cooks, most notably Sal, played by Leo Woodall, whose easy confidence with women impresses Tony and who introduces Tony to drugs, namely coke and later heroin. But it is the chef who makes the biggest difference in Bouerdain’s life. He explains how he went to Culinary Institute of America and was a big deal until one day he wanted to open a small place of his own but it became a rinky dink place rather than a fancy bistro. Tony tries to impress Nancy by suggesting he will have an amazing special there and it seems to be going well until Tony accidentally burns the kitchen down which finds him at a crossroads of who he is as a person of character and as a person, period.
In a lot of ways, this role channels Sessa’s last major outing in The Holdovers, where his brooding intellectual nature is a mask to hide the sadness and loneliness that he thinks will only come from achievement. His Bourdain wants to prove himself – worthy of being a leader, a lover and a person of authenticity. When he comes short, he can’t enjoy it. Banderas as Tony’s mentor is an easygoing guy who has the talent but doesn’t need the recognition and he serves as a counter measure to Bourdain here by providing a figure to aspire to. Sessa also plays Bourdain as something of a Holden Caulfield type and at times this does echo something like The Catcher in the Rye, albeit one with a better outcome for its protagonist. It’s a well acted and well-diretced film, albeit one that is a little too reliant on emotional hooks in its score to underline several moments. That could’ve been dialed down by a lot. But overall, Tony is an enhoyable vision of what a young Bourdain might have been, albeit one that is a bit soft around the edges in trying to not make Bourdain seem so unlikeable and less of a rough character. Jones does a great job of playing someone who Bourdain would be into, a sassy, intellectual match who sees through huis bullshit and their chemistry throughout is great and engaging. The film’s ending is especially poignant and features a great cameo for fans of the true Anthony Bourdain.