Ever since I sat down to watch this film in late July, I’ve been on a bit of an Anthony Bourdain kick. The short Instagram clips have always been a part of my algorithm – mostly the Vietnam sitdown with former President Obama and then the wildly edited madness of his Tokyo Parts Unknown episode – but I hadn’t read the infamous tell-all manifesto Kitchen Confidential nor watched any of his television shows. With all of this said, the really idiosyncratic part about A24’s Tony is that it’s not really about Anthony Bourdain at all—rather like a letter you’d find in a cork bottle on the Provincetown shores. This is a sun-soaked, food-porn-maxxing exploration of youth, honesty, and the realization of needing a good ass-kicking.
Tony opens with a title card reading, “I was — to be frank — a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, and badly in need of a good ass-kicking.” This is quickly realized when a cocky Bourdain (Dominic Sessa) is thrown out of one of the many fried fish establishments on Cape Cod, specifically Provincetown. Sessa’s Bourdain is 19-years-old, and the film doesn’t go a day above that age, which makes Tony play as one of the more anti-biopics in the world — meaning if you take away the name Bourdain, this reads the exact same as some kid from New Jersey as it does the self-mythologizing of the service industry Messiah.
As all 19-year-old young men are (singlehand experience here), Tony is an entitled shithead. He’s conning himself, his family, and his crush Nancy (Emilia Jones) by establishing himself as a real “writer,” even though he didn’t get the writing grant he so desperately wanted. This sends a young Bourdain chasing Nancy to Provincetown, where he doesn’t have a job, a place to stay, and only about $50 in his wallet.
The real issue here is that Tony is chasing someone that’s hooking up with the owner of a pizza parlor. He also says he’s a writer but doesn’t write anything. It isn’t until being thrown out of a restaurant by a charming line cook named Sal (Leo Woodall) – who also gives Sessa a nice black eye – that he decides to shoot his shot with a job request to work in the same kitchen.
The hopeless but privileged Tony is given the opportunity to be a dishwasher for The Flagship, which is run by the head chef (Antonio Banderas), who himself feels like a mythical character and a composite stepping stone for Bourdain in real life (especially since he isn’t mentioned by name). In exchange, Tony is allowed to stay on Ciro’s hammock – which may or may not be complemented by a bucket of salt water thrown on him every morning.
As for the kitchen, our cast is rounded out by performances from Stavros Kalkias, Michael Jibrin, and Monica Raymund – which is an incredibly accurate representation of a real group of kitchen mainstays with all of their shit-talking and honest lessons for a young buck like Sessa. Banderas’ character is the real conductor of The Flagship. A stable, religious, Portuguese immigrant who clearly has a real past of seeing through the grey matter. Banderas’ performance is one of the most quietly intense roles of the year and feels like a real standout, even for how subtle the character can be.
The ‘found family’ genre is a real stallworth for myself, and Tony is nothing short of that. Chef is clearly high on young Tony’s potential. There are intimate moments between the two of them, most highlighted by Tony’s initiation-like shot of Malört – an experience I can still remember exactly how it burned down my throat while I was barbacking for The Vault on Gay Street in Knoxville, Tennessee. Their characters feel authentically earnest without grasping too far to have an Oscar-baity scene of hugs and tears.
For director Matt Johnson, this is his second film of the year, following up the NEON word-of-mouth hit Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, which has some essence in Tony due to his remarkably hilarious singled-out bits of mockumentary swagger. Johnson has become one of the more exciting filmmakers working at the moment as he’s organically created a Christopher Nolan-like fanbase – only a hundred times more niche – where his fans will be sat in theaters for anything he makes. He’s leading a cohort of exciting Canadian directors.
At the end of days of our Cape Cod getaway, Tony is a brilliant exercise in Matt Johnson’s adventurous sensibilities. It’s brutally honest, sexy, a little chaotic, and deeply interested in its environment — this is exactly the kind of movie he excels with. Tony is a polaroid of a film, more interested in the humanity surrounding the late artist, and pairs perfectly with a can of ‘Gansett. This is the exact summer nightcap I was looking for.
Tony releases wide on August 21st.
Wyatt Allison can be found on Twitter/X @wyattartsknox and on Letterboxd @filmwyatt
