TONY
(director/writer: Matt Johnson; screenwriters: Todd Bartels, Lou Howe, Matthew Miller, based on the 2010 memoir by Anthony Bourdain “Kitchen Confidential”; cinematographer: Michael Bauman; editors: Curt Lobb, Robert Upchurch; music: Jay McCarrol; cast: Dominic Sessa (Tony), Antonio Banderas (Chef, Jose), Emilia Jones (Nancy), Leo Woodall (Sal), Stavros Halkias (Stavros), Michael Jibrin (Tyrone, Kitchen worker), Stavros Halkrios (Dmitri, Kitchen worker), Monica Raymund (Mary, bartender/server), Rich Sommer (Pierre, Tony’s father), Dagmara Dominczyk (Gladys, Tony’s mom), Liam Fitch (Christopher, Tony’s younger brother), Caroline Portu (Robin, Nancy’s cousin), Joe Burns (Pizza Guy), Allyn Burrows (Professor Dobson); Runtime: 106; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Tim White, Trevor White, Matthew Miller, Matt Johnson; A24; 2026)
“A fun film.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Canadian director/writer Matt Johnson (“Blackberry”/ “Operation Avalanche”) has the ingredients, along with co-writers Todd Bartels, Lou Howe, and Matthew Miller, to make a successful nostalgic and amusing coming-of-age biopic on the culinary maven Tony Bourdain (Dominic Sessa). It’s based on his 2010 memoir “Kitchen Confidential.”
It’s set in the summer of 1975 when Tony was a 19-year-old Vassar college student, a wannabe writer, a wiseguy, and who was chasing after his snooty college ex-girlfriend (Emilia Jones). To be near her for the summer break, he got a job as a dishwasher in a crab shack kitchen in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
The movie is far from true but is entertaining and sympathetic to his growing pains. Since it doesn’t pass itself off as a documentary it’s cool (I think!) that a lot of it is made up of bullshit. It’s conventionally shot but has an offbeat story.
Antonio Banderas plays Jose, the world-weary Brazilian chef/owner who becomes Tony’s mentor. The chef’s a character who is amazingly real–a mixture of a wise and calm guru, who no matter the situation is able to handle the nasty characters around him.
A character in the film, Sal (Leo Woodall), a real-life person–a druggie, boozer and wild man (the crazy wedding scene in the film really happened). Tony followed him on his many cocaine misadventures.
These few months in Tony’s teen life apparently woke something up in him that influenced him to become the celebrity chef he became. It’s a fun film that especially fans of Bourdain, like me, can appreciate.
Banderas steals the film with his overwhelming presence. Sessa captures Tony as the awkward, smooth talking and brash middle-class youth from the suburbs in New Jersey. It’s a film that could have used more scenes with Tony cooking and less corny scenes of Tony futzing around.
In real life, Tony in 2018, at age 61, committed suicide by hanging himself.
REVIEWED ON 8/26/2026 GRADE: B+
dennisschwartzreviews.com