Tony (2026)

I went into Tony knowing that making a movie about Anthony Bourdain’s life would be a pretty difficult task, because there are so many different parts of his story that could have been explored, but I actually liked that the movie chose to focus on one relatively small period rather than attempting to cram his entire life into two hours. Instead, we meet Tony when he is 19 years old, before the television shows, the books, the international travel, and really before he has any idea what he is going to do with his life.

The movie takes place during a summer in Provincetown in the 1970s, where Tony ends up working in a restaurant kitchen, and that experience becomes the catalyst for a lot of the changes that follow. He is young, cocky, opinionated, and convinced that he is destined for something bigger, although he hasn’t quite figured out what that something is yet. He is also very much a product of his age and circumstances, and I appreciated that the movie doesn’t try to make him into the fully formed Anthony Bourdain we remember from television. He is immature, makes plenty of questionable decisions, and can be pretty insufferable at times, which honestly makes the character feel much more believable.

Dominic Sessa does a great job with that version of Tony because he isn’t attempting to impersonate the older Bourdain so much as capture some of the personality traits that would eventually become recognizable. There is the arrogance, the curiosity, the humor, and the tendency to push boundaries, but there is also a young man who hasn’t yet figured out how to turn any of those qualities into something productive. Watching him stumble into the restaurant world and gradually realize that he might have found something worth pursuing becomes the real story of the movie.

The kitchen itself is probably my favorite part of the film because it gives Tony an environment where none of the things he thinks make him special really matter. It doesn’t matter that he went to Vassar, it doesn’t matter that he thinks he wants to be a writer, and it certainly doesn’t matter how many opinions he has about the people around him. If he wants to be there, he has to work, and Chef, played by Antonio Banderas, is not exactly interested in making that lesson easy for him.

Chef’s approach to mentorship is pretty brutal, involving plenty of yelling, humiliation, exhaustion, and even dumping water on Tony to wake him up, but underneath all of that is a lesson that Tony probably needed to learn. Talent and ambition only get you so far if you aren’t willing to put in the work, and the restaurant forces him to confront that in a way that school or his previous experiences never really did.

What I also liked about the movie is that it doesn’t make the restaurant seem like some magical place where Tony immediately discovers his calling. There is plenty of chaos and dysfunction, and the people he encounters aren’t exactly role models, but Tony becomes fascinated by them anyway. That curiosity about people would eventually become one of the defining characteristics of Bourdain’s career, and it is interesting to watch the beginnings of it here as he becomes increasingly immersed in this strange little world.

Leo Woodall’s Sal is particularly important to that part of the story, bringing a reckless and unpredictable energy that makes him both compelling and difficult to trust. His relationship with Tony adds another layer to the movie because Tony is not only figuring out whether he wants to stay in this world, but also figuring out which parts of it he wants to take with him.

Knowing where Bourdain eventually ended up gives all of this an added layer, because you are watching a young man make choices without knowing exactly where they will lead him, even though the audience already does. We know that he will eventually become a writer, a chef, a television personality, and one of the most recognizable voices in food and travel, but Tony doesn’t know any of that yet. He is simply trying to get through this particular summer and figure out what comes next.

That is also why I think the movie benefits from not trying to tell the entire Bourdain story. We don’t get No Reservations, Parts Unknown, the bestselling books, or the countless meals and conversations that made him famous. Instead, we get a kid before anyone knows his name, which makes Tony feel more like a coming of age story than a traditional celebrity biopic.

There is also something refreshing about seeing a famous person before the world had decided who they were supposed to be. Tony isn’t presented as some misunderstood genius who was obviously destined for greatness from the beginning, and the movie doesn’t gloss over the fact that he could be arrogant, selfish, reckless, and difficult. He is also funny, observant, curious, and capable of connecting with people in ways that suggest the person he will eventually become is already in there somewhere.

I think that balance is important because it would have been very easy for a movie about Bourdain to become overly sentimental, particularly given how much affection people have for him and the legacy he left behind. Instead, Tony lets him be messy and young, which makes the eventual transformation feel more authentic.

The movie also has a strong sense of place, and the Provincetown setting gives the story a loose, almost nostalgic summer quality even as things become increasingly chaotic. There is drinking, partying, sex, drugs, restaurant drama, and plenty of bad decisions, but underneath all of it is this young man beginning to understand that the life he thought he wanted might not actually be the one that suits him.

For anyone who has read Kitchen Confidential, there is an added layer of fun in watching some of the experiences that would eventually inform Bourdain’s writing. The movie draws from the stories and persona he developed in his own work, although it is important to remember that this is a fictionalized version of his life rather than a completely factual account of what happened that summer.

Ultimately, I think Tony succeeds because it isn’t really trying to explain Anthony Bourdain to us. It is simply showing us one period of his life when he was still figuring himself out, and that makes the story much more relatable than a traditional rise to fame narrative would have been. Most people don’t know exactly where they are going at 19, and very few people get to look back later and recognize the seemingly random experiences that ended up shaping their entire lives.

If you’re already a Bourdain fan, I think there is plenty here to enjoy, particularly in seeing some of the traits that would eventually make him such a compelling storyteller. If you aren’t particularly familiar with him, the movie still works as a coming of age story about a young man who stumbles into an environment that challenges him, introduces him to a completely different world, and ultimately gives him a glimpse of the person he might become.

I enjoyed Tony for what it is, and I think the decision to focus on this particular chapter rather than attempting to create the definitive Anthony Bourdain biopic was the right one. It isn’t really about the legend, and it isn’t interested in giving us the finished product. It is about Tony, long before he became Bourdain, standing in a restaurant kitchen and slowly realizing that maybe he has finally found somewhere he belongs.