Tony (2026)
Beloved chef/travel show host Anthony Bourdain gets a cinematic origin story in director Matt Johnson's new film Tony.
Set in 1975, Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers) plays Bourdain as a rowdy, arrogant college student pursuing a writing fellowship. When he does not get it, he tells everyone he did anyway and follows his crush (Emilia Jones) to Provincetown for the summer.
After immediately landing himself in hot water with his drunken boorishness, Tony finds himself broke. In desperate need of a place to stay, he sleeps on the hammock of a local chef (Antonio Banderas) in exchange for washing dishes at the chef's restaurant. Tony befriends fellow kitchen staffer Sal (Leo Woodall), whose penchant for hard partying and self-destructiveness even exceeds Tony's.
Sessa keeps viewers from hating
Tony even when he's behaving badly. Banderas does terrific work in support. The
film also has a nice-lived in feel. The coastal New England and mid-1970s
atmosphere feels authentic and not just a nostalgia trip. The only really
clunky part of the movie comes at the very end. Otherwise, this is a solid film
that even viewers who are not hardcore Bourdain fans should enjoy (this
reviewer watched some episodes of No Reservations but was by no means a
die-hard fan).
