Film Review: Tony (2026)

Tony (Currently in theatres; check your local listings) 

Starring: Dominic Sessa, Antonio Bandaras, Leo Woodall, Stavros Halkias

Dir: Matt Johnson 

Run Time: 106 min 

It’s officially the start of the awards season for movies, which means one genre keeps coming up: biopics. There are two approaches to this genre. The first includes a director casting a wide-reaching net that covers all aspects of the subject while trying to create a clear focus on the person (e.g. Michael). The second is a shorter picture that covers an important, if not the most important, time/chapter in that subject's life which profoundly changed them, turning them into the person they are today or want to be remembered as (e.g. Deliver Me From Nowhere, A Complete Unknown). Normally, sensationalism plays a big role, but if you can capture that person’s persona behind that sensationalism, you have succeeded. Anthony “Tony” Bourdain might be well known on screen, but off-screen in his books, he is brutally honest and holds no reservations about the life of a chef and the industry. 

Having a limited amount of knowledge of Bourdain from clips of his popular show Parts Unknown, my mom suggested I start reading Kitchen Confidential, his autobiography following his career in the restaurant industry, before watching the film. The film, Tony, follows the early chapters of Bourdain's book including his experience in Provincetown, Massachusetts. For this film to work, you needed to understand the rebellious, exuberant, larger-than-life spirit that Bourdain was. Matt Johnson directed Blackberry and brings that same rebellious countercultural outsider spirit to the film Tony, helmed by the rebellious, charismatic lead in The Holdovers, Dominic Sessa, as "Tony" himself. 

The film begins outside of the kitchen, following  Anthony “Tony” Bourdain (Dominic Sessa) as a student at Vassar College applying for a writing fellowship that would send him to New York City. He describes the book as Jack Kerouac meets Hunter S. Thompson, foreshadowing the rebellious spirit that Bourdain possessed. In a bout of confidence before hearing back, he tells his family and his high school love interest Nancy Potkoski (Emilia Jones) – who would later become his first wife – that he got the fellowship in New York. Upon learning of the rejection from the fellowship committee, he impulsively travels to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where Nancy said she would be over the summer. Nancy is working at the local pizzeria and is dating the delivery guy; a crestfallen Tony goes to drown his sorrows at the local seafood restaurant, The Flagship. While inebriated, Tony is rude to the Waitress/Bartender Mary and gets tossed out on the street and robbed by Sal (Leo Woodall), a cook at The Flagship. 

Running short on money, Tony sees his only option to be sneaking aboard the ferry home, but runs into a snag when he bumps into Nancy. Continuing the lie, he tells her he is in Provincetown researching his fellowship. She invites him to a party, and he decides to stay but needs to find employment.  Lying about having previous restaurant experience, he gets a job as a dishwasher at The Flagship and is employed by Chef José Vatel (Antonio Banderas). The cooks at The Flagship can be described as a motley, raucous crew of individuals that don’t shy away from drugs or foul language while on the job; Tony is drawn to the brash and confident Sal, who also happens to be volatile. Sal’s heroin habit gets the best of him and leads him one day to show up late and have a violent confrontation with Chef, prompting him to then leaves. Chef decides to promote Tony and mentor him, having previously worked in the CIA (Culinary Institute of America). As Tony begins taking his life more seriously, Nancy sees a change in him; however, old habits die hard. Tony must see that although he wants his future to be surrounded by the world that might set him on the good path it still comes with the vices that can send your career up in flames. 

Director Matt Johnson has a signature vintage camera style that gives the film a definitive 1970s feeling, which is the era it's set in. He gets it right to focus on this era of Bourdain’s life, more specifically the journey of Tony becoming Anthony again. Johnson harpoons from the sea, a great performance from Dominic Sessa, who embodies Anthony Bourdain as both rebelling and finding solace at the same time. You might want to start with the book Kitchen Confidential, the documentary Roadrunner by director Morgan Neville, or the television series No Reservations by Tony himself. Tony delivers viewers straight to the deep end of the formative years of a young chef's life thanks to his mentor and the positive influences around him.

Remi co-host’s  At The Movies, which can be heard every Tuesday morning from 9-10AM. Tune in for discussions about movies, soundtracks, and iconic film scores. At The Movies also covers film festivals that are located in Montreal.