Tony
What’s it rated? R
What’s it worth, Anna? Matinee
What’s it worth, Glen? Full price
Where’s it showing?Fair Oaks, Palm, Downtown Centre, Bay (beginning Sept. 25), Colony, Park.
Matt Johnson (BlackBerry) directs this story about 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain (Dominic Sessa), who in 1975 travels to Provincetown to follow his crush, Nancy (Emilia Jones), and winds up with his first kitchen job. (106 min.)
Glen: The film begins with a quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, Anthony Bourdain’s a raw confessional published in 2000 about his rocky, drug-fueled, grueling road to becoming a chef: “I was—to be frank—a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive, and thoughtless young lout, badly in need of a good ass-kicking.” Indeed, when we meet Tony, he’s a real prick—a cocky, self-aggrandizing liar, unappreciative of others. The world owes him, see? He’s also clearly intelligent—he gets his smarts from his mother, who he deeply resents. Yet, he’s also earnest and wants to make his mark. To impress and intimidate others, he drops big words like bildungsroman, which is pure foreshadowing, for this story is Bourdain’s coming-of-age as he evolves from shitty little asshole into decent human being, in part because of the guidance of his first chef, José Vatel (Antonio Banderas). I cringed at Tony’s assholery but found the story very touching.
Anna: Bourdain himself admits that Kitchen Confidential is a blend of reality and hyperbole, and this film decides to run with that spirit. I loved the book, and I have to say I found the author’s voice more charming than I did Sessa’s on-screen portrayal. While Bourdain freely admitted to his shortcomings, his pompousness, his tendency toward drugs and drink, the man himself was I think far less maudlin and lovelorn than the film version. Sure, Nancy was his first and longtime wife, but from all accounts, the two were already involved before he spent time in Provincetown, and the film seems to smoosh many summers into one. If you don’t treat this as a tried-and-true account of Bourdain’s early years, you’ll probably have more fun with it. I was always interested and entertained by the real guy, more so than by this version of him. There were fun elements—Banderas is particularly good and a joy to watch as he dumps water on Tony’s head each morning as an alarm clock, but I think I’ll stick with watching reruns of the real Bourdain travel the world.
Glen: I guess I liked it a lot more than you. I thought Sessa was terrific. I felt like his Tony was learning every lesson the hard way, and he played Bourdain with real tenacity but also an openness to new experiences. He was pure arrogance masking insecurity. I only watched a smattering of Anthony Bourdain’s various food shows and travelogues, so I think you have a better handle on who he was in real life. I thought as a coming-of-age story, Tony presented a tale that felt like a real depiction of the painful ups and downs of late adolescence as you’re struggling to be seen and respected. I highly recommend it.
Anna: I just wasn’t feeling an hour and a half or so with a moody 19-year-old dude who was very woe-is-me. Look, if you’ve worked in a kitchen or fancy yourself a chef, you’ve likely become very familiar with Bourdain and his oeuvre, and maybe I’m being too picky about it. There was a great documentary called Roadrunner in 2021, which I totally recommend. This film is worth the price of a theater ticket, but you might feel a bit heavy after it—which is fine! Bourdain was a notoriously depressed and isolated man, and this doesn’t shy away from that. It just isn’t necessarily very fun to visit that headspace. The story’s ultimately sweet though, and like I said, Banderas was fun. Sessa was great as an actor—but you have to admit his character was kind of a bummer. I’m interested to find out what those who knew Bourdain around this time in his life think of the film. m
New Times Arts Editor Glen Starkey and freelancer Anna Starkey write Sun Screen. Comment at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in August 27 – September 3, 2026.
