Tony review – Anthony Bourdain biopic didn’t need to linger on his tragic fate
Tony review – Anthony Bourdain biopic didn’t need to linger on his tragic fate
Clarisse Loughrey Wed, July 29, 2026 at 4:50 PM UTC
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Dominic Sessa in 'Tony' (Bob Gruen)
Anthony Bourdain made the necessary act of feeding ourselves feel like a rock ’n’ roll philosophy, a radical form of communication that could obliterate all boundaries of language, culture, and class. His suicide in 2018 was, therefore, particularly hard. For many, he’d become an emblem of what it means to live with an open heart and an open mind.
Matt Johnson’s Bourdain biopic film Tony – which casts The Holdovers breakout Dominic Sessa as the chef, author, and documentarian in early adulthood, on the cusp of brilliance – uses the coming-of-age narrative to capture that recognisably Bourdain-esque sense of culinary revelation. As a film about what it means to embrace what’s in front of you and not what’s in your mind, it’s a lovely and deeply likeable work.
Yet Johnson and his co-writers Matthew Miller, Todd Bartels, and Lou Howe seem pressured to address Bourdain’s death in some way, as if the film would be neglectful not to. There’s some jarring foreshadowing where you can almost feel the film pause to turn solemnly to its audience and disclose, “and, of course, you know the rest of the story…”.
The Bourdain in Tony is as much a reflection of the real person as he is a literary creation, carved out from two brief chapters in his 2000 memoir Kitchen Confidential in which he describes the summers he spent washing dishes in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He considered himself, at that time, to be “a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, badly in need of a good ass-kicking”.
Johnson opens with Bourdain, calling himself Tony, pitching his “idea for an idea” of a book in the hopes of securing a writing fellowship at Vassar College in 1975. He mentions a JD Salinger slant, without realising that he is, in fact, carrying around all shades of The Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield, as “spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless” in nature.
He can barely initiate a conversation without mentioning he’s a writer, including with the girl he’s infatuated by (Emilia Jones’s Nancy, a relatively thankless love interest role), and follows her to Provincetown when he fails to land the fellowship and can’t bear to tell his judgemental mother (Dagmara Domińczyk). There, he stumbles into a local seafood joint named The Flagship, unremarkable in its wood-clad walls and sparse menu, yet oddly serene when blessed by the presence of its chef, largely because he’s played by the ever-soulful Antonio Banderas. He hints at something poetic beyond the testosterone fumes emitted by the rest of the staff, Sal (Leo Woodall), Stavros (comedian and podcaster Stavros Halkias, playing up his own abrasive persona), and Tyrone (Michael Jibrin). Johnson – who also directed this year’s funniest film, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie – makes these kitchen scenes a boisterous breeze.
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This version of Bourdain isn’t so different to the “spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless” teen Sessa played across from Paul Giamatti in The Holdovers, but it’s such a tricky character type to get right and the actor does it so effortlessly that I’d happily watch him do it a hundred more times. He talks to everybody from beneath a furrowed brow, a dead-eyed stare, and the occasional twitch of a smirk, delivering an arrogant semi-creep who’s just translucent enough for us to see and feel for the broken, lonely child beneath.
Sessa and Antonio Banderas in ‘Tony’ (A24)
In fact, Sessa adds such depth and texture to his Caulfield riff that it feels ultimately unnecessary for Johnson to add any explicit reference to the darker, sadder shades of Bourdain’s psyche. It’s already there. In quiet moments, a sense of defeat will crawl across his features. Yet Tony makes a concerted effort to transform Sal, a heavy drug user with a conquering disdain for women, into the metaphorical path of temptation, leading to a few clumsy lines about “sin eaters” and the idea some people carry darkness with them so others can live in the light. You can feel, in these moments, the film grasping at the threads in some effort to present a greater thesis about Bourdain’s life. It feels unnecessary. The audience knows who Bourdain was and part of that was what a wonderful storyteller he was. And this is a wonderful story to tell.
Dir: Matt Johnson. Starring: Dominic Sessa, Emilia Jones, Dagmara Domińczyk, Rich Sommer, Stavros Halkias, Leo Woodall, Antonio Banderas. Cert 15, 106 minutes.
‘Tony’ is in cinemas from 14 August
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.
If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
