Long before he inspired millions with his love of food and the people who made it, Anthony Bourdain was just a punk kid named Tony. That's not only the perspective of the movie Tony, but also of Bourdain himself. In his memoir Kitchen Confidential, which the film takes stories from, he describes his youthful self as "spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless." The Tony we meet at the beginning of the film is all of these things and more. At times, he's flat-out unlikable.
After losing out on a writing fellowship, he arrives in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in pursuit of romance (or at least a hook-up) with his high school crush Nancy (a luminous Emilia Jones). When she blows him off, he drowns his sorrows at the Flagship, a local seafood joint. But after getting the bum's rush, he finds himself hungover and penniless, unable to even return home with his tail between his legs. Since the Flagship's kitchen is a place for strays, Tony soon finds himself "adopted" by the chef (Antonio Banderas) and getting a crash course in cooking and life. Despite being in a quieter register, this might just be Banderas's best performance outside of his collaborations with Pedro Almodóvar.
Director Matt Johnson has succeeded at finding touching and hilarious moments in his past work, including this year's side-splitting Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. But this is his first project with a real budget, and he rises to the occasion, refining his style without losing any of skills or sanding down any rough edges.
Like BlackBerry, the structure of Tony is immediately familiar. But it's how Johnson injects the film with humor and pathos, and gets great performances out of his actors, that elevate it into something special. All the scenes in the kitchen, with copious drug use, yelling and ball-busting are electric, even when Tony's inexperience leads to disaster.
If you're a fan of other period coming-of-age movies with killer soundtracks like The Wackness or Adventureland, Tony is going to be a tasty dish. The film is heavily fictionalized, so there aren't a lot of revelations about Anthony Bourdain as a person. But his journey from cocky kid to passionate writer is still remarkable.
