The new A24 release, "Tony," offers a coming-of-age story centered on culinary figure Anthony Bourdain. The film, which debuts in Los Angeles and New York on August 7 and expands on August 21, focuses on a single summer in Bourdain's youth.
Set in 1975 on Cape Cod in Provincetown, Massachusetts, "Tony" portrays a period in Bourdain's life as he works in a restaurant kitchen. According to the filmmakers, the narrative follows Bourdain as he transitions from a dishwasher to learning the kitchen's environment, plating shrimp cocktails, and developing an appreciation for the culinary world. Director and co-writer Matt Johnson, who co-wrote the screenplay with Matthew Miller, Todd Bartels, and Lou Howe, helmed the production.
Dominic Sessa plays the teenage Bourdain, described as an angular misfit. The film also features Antonio Banderas in the role of a culinary mentor. This mentor figure is presented as spiritual, punctual, and deeply religious, though overseeing a workforce described as misogynistic, racist, and drug-addled. The film depicts Bourdain inspiring this mentor to add lobster thermidor to the menu. Emilia Jones appears as Bourdain's love interest, and Leo Woodall portrays Sal, Bourdain’s kitchen and drug pal. Chef Eric Ripert, a longtime friend of Bourdain, makes a cameo appearance.
The source material for the film includes Bourdain’s 2000 memoir, "Kitchen Confidential," in which he dedicated two chapters to this time in Provincetown. The film opens with a quote from this memoir: “I was — to be frank — a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, badly in need of a good ass-kicking.” While this period was important in Bourdain's life, the film "Tony" has taken liberties with these formative experiences, according to reports. For instance, the film features a "completely new culinary mentor" for Bourdain and includes a "Hollywood action movielike kitchen fire."
The movie's approach to Bourdain's transformation and struggles has drawn observations. It reportedly leaves out his journey to becoming a global culinary raconteur and does not depict his heroin use, despite Bourdain mentioning in "Parts Unknown" that this was where he bought his first bag of heroin. The film is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for "pervasive language, drug use and sexual content/nudity." It has a running time of 106 minutes.
