Tony film review: A grotty biopic
The youthful rebellion of Anthony Bourdain is vividly captured by newly minted indie icon Matt Johnson
Celebrity chef and Kitchen Confidential author Anthony Bourdain’s culinary awakening is presented in enjoyably ignominious fashion as his teenage tearaway learns his craft in a truly hellish kitchen. Canadian director Matt Johnson follows on quickly from his last project, Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie, with this deliberately grotty biopic buoyed by terrific performances from The Holdovers’ Dominic Sessa, and Antonio Banderas.
Set over one summer in 1975, the film finds a 19-year-old Anthony, known then as Tony (Sessa), pursuing his high school crush Nancy (Emilia Jones) to the coastal resort of Provincetown, after failing to secure a writing fellowship and lying shamelessly about doing so. When he's robbed during a drunken night out, Tony ends up washing pots in the kitchen of a former top chef (Banderas) who is now serving up fast food, assisted by drug-addled reprobates including Leo Woodall’s prolific shagger Sal.
Although there are lessons to be learned, for most part this is refreshingly unvarnished and a rare example of a ‘foodie’ film where the cuisine rarely looks appetising and the circumstances in which it is prepared are often fully disgusting. Despite being affluent and well-educated, Tony is lacking in any nous whatsoever as the film begins and is credibly played by Sessa with a kind of aggressive anti-charisma, as everything the dishevelled teen touches turns to crap. Johnson revels entertainingly in the immaturity and anarchy, whilst discreetly building affection for this rebel without a cause.
Tony is in cinemas from Friday 14 August.