Tony

A beautiful summer coming-of-age story.

Matt Johnson's Tony tells the story of the summer that preceded Anthony Bourdain's decision to enroll at the Culinary Institute of America, which eventually led to him becoming one of the legendary chefs of our time. In 1975, he was 19 years old and studying writing at Vassar College. Chasing a girl he really liked, he goes to Provincetown, where, after a drunken fight in a bar and having no money to stay anywhere, he ends up staying with the chef of that very bar and starts working in the kitchen to earn his place to live. He becomes interested in the way Chef José, the man he works for, behaves and works, and despite their quite unusual relationship, he starts to respect him enough to listen to his advice (which is a rarity for him). After a huge fire at José's restaurant happens because of Tony, he realizes that he actually liked what he was doing, so he leaves Vassar and enrolls at the Culinary Institute of America.

Overall, if you look at this film from afar, it is quite a conventional biopic about a small part of some legendary person's life, most often before their big breakthrough, with an emotional title card at the end on a black screen telling us that after this, they became this great, amazing, one-of-a-kind person. And in that sense, this film really falls into the quite conventional part of these kinds of movies. But when it comes to biopics like this, their fate is very often decided by one thing: how heartfelt they are. And this film has that warmth, which makes it an absolutely pleasant watch.

It has a beautiful, colourful look, and overall, the story is universal enough even for those who have no idea who Anthony Bourdain is. And on the one hand, that is a plus for the film, because it is very accessible. On the other hand, some of its flaws also come from the fact that it generalises everything that happens too much, without touching on some harsher, more personal and, possibly, more interesting moments.

It almost makes me think about how spectacularly the Michael biopic failed in terms of storytelling. Of course, the situation here is nowhere near as bad, but considering how multi-layered, quite unusual, very specific and far from boring Anthony Bourdain was as a person, even in his youth, this film definitely smooths out a lot of the edges. Of course, it gives him some negative qualities. Tony enters the screen as a self-centered prick, and he pretty much leaves the screen as one. But it feels like the character wasn't given enough depth, considering that the source material was an incredibly complicated person.

Also, despite the film looking amazing, for me, it was missing more cooking scenes where we could actually watch how Tony observed the man who was, essentially, his teacher, and how he slowly got into the art of cooking, which he later, essentially, carried with him for the rest of his life and got millions of people hooked on.

In the end, the film can quite generally be called a coming-of-age story, which, in principle, could work for anyone and doesn't necessarily have to be based on the biography of one particular person. But, of course, the colour of the characters is also incredibly important here, and the cast really does something with this film that makes it incredibly fun to watch.

Dominic Sessa as Tony is great. I had been waiting for a long time to see what would come next for him after his brilliant debut in The Holdovers, and here, as Anthony Bourdain, he was very good. Sessa showed all the complexity that was required of him within this script without being gimmicky or over-the-top. I wish him many more incredibly interesting roles, and I will be following him with pleasure.

Leo Woodall also does a good job with his role. Even though his character is absent for the entire middle of the film, he remains an important point of entry and exit for the main character and his decisions.

But the real MVP of the film is Antonio Banderas as José, the chef at the restaurant where Tony works. Such a restrained but confident, warm but at the same time distant performance from Banderas really becomes the true heart of this film, and his character is the one that seems to stay with you the most.

Overall, the film does a pretty good job with some very understandable messages about how a person searches for their place in the world, how confusing and sometimes scary that can be, and what kind of feelings it can bring. About how even assholes sometimes have a heart and a soul. And about how it is never too late to reconsider your priorities in life, even if they suddenly seem radically different from what you originally imagined.

Eventually, the film tells us that if you feel like you should quit something and try something new, then, if you have the opportunity, you should do it. Because we never know who might become the next Anthony Bourdain.

7/10

Thanks to M2 Films for the early press screening. Catch Tony in theatres everywhere.