Tony: Biopic captures the essence of Anthony Bourdain at a time of hope and promise

Anthony Bourdain was a complex man who left behind a trove of his writings and TV shows.

Through his work, he created an intimate relationship with his fans, many of whom followed his advice on their travels, sitting down at the same tables at which he once ate. That bonded people to him, or at least a version of him.

His death by suicide in 2018 at the age of 61 provoked a key question — how could this man who seemed to have an unquenchable curiosity about the world not want to see more of it?

He had darkness and struggles, he didn’t resile from that, often speaking or writing about it with openness and honesty. And mental health is a complicated subject and we don’t know what Bourdain was going through.

If a Bourdain biopic had tried a conventional approach and covered his whole life, it would have been very difficult to write and film that final chapter. It’s not even about whether it’s something fans want to see — the worst kind of art is the one that panders – but how do you capture a pain you don’t know. Disrespectful would be an understatement.

Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson decided on a different tactic. Tony is not the Bourdain we met in his mid-40s with his breakout book Kitchen Confidential, and then got to know over the years through his shows such as No Reservations and Parts Unknown.

Instead, the film takes a moment in his youth, and creates a portrait that is not the well-known version, but someone who could become him. Through Dominic Sessa’s performance, the essence of the Bourdain we knew comes through.

The film is set in the summer of 1975 in Provincetown, a fishing community at the very tip of Massachusetts’ Cape Cod. A cocky 19-year-old Tony has landed there after being rejected for a writing fellowship he was confident of securing, and is now too embarrassed to tell everyone he didn’t get it.

On a whim, he followed a female college classmate, Nancy (Emilia Jones), on whom he has a crush. Out of desperation, and somewhat accidentally, he lands a job as a dishwasher in a local restaurant called The Flagship.

Bourdain hadn’t publicly talked about his time in Provincetown in great detail. He mentioned it during an episode of Parts Unknown, and dedicated a half-chapter to it in Kitchen Confidential, but what he did write was so evocative, painting a vivid picture of Dionysian chaos.

Drinks were imbibed, food was eaten, cigarettes were smoked and parties were had, and in that frenzied kitchen he found a fraternity and a home. It was Bourdain’s first professional job and it set him on a path he followed for the next quarter of a century.

Johnson’s film is a condensed and fictionalised supposition that draws from the little morsels Bourdain left behind to create a fully realised world on screen.

There’s the seafood stew he wrote about which the workers ate family style between service, an old Portuguese recipe that reflects Provincetown’s heritage.

Antonio Banderas plays The Flagship’s owner and chef, while his fellow workers include the jovial Stavros (Stavros Halkias), Tyrone (Michael Jibrin) and the kind of dodgy Sal (Leo Woodall), and the ensemble is a little family, albeit one that didn’t always get on.

The strength of the film is how effectively Johnson has recreated the era, built around a character that so many people already have an impression of, but still manages to surprise with the emotional depth of him.

Sessa is a gifted performer with a very natural instinct, which is obviously why he distinguished himself years earlier at the open casting call held at his high school when The Holdovers production came to town and cast him as the co-lead opposite Paul Giamatti.

He brings that natural talent to his complex role, and is able to render something that is not mimicry even though it is familiar and real. His Tony is sensitive but insouciant, fuelled by desires and ambitions he doesn’t understand yet.

It’s only at the end of the film that Tony refers to himself by his full name, Anthony Bourdain, a gesture that is earnt by the character and also by the film.

By focusing on this period in Bourdain’s life that was the start of something and not the end, where there is nothing but promise, Tony understands that there were many sides to Bourdain and one of his greatest legacies is to look to tomorrow.

Rating: 4/5

Tony is in cinemas on August 20

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