“If you’re fond of sand dunes and salty air / Quaint little villages here and there […] If you like the taste of a lobster stew / Served by a window with an ocean view / You’re sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod” – Patti Page, ‘Old Cape Cod’
After the success of his critically acclaimed and quintessentially Torontonian feature Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson returns with Tony: a sentimental coming-of-age biopic about how a naive kid from New Jersey rose to being the world-renowned and rebellious late chef and travel writer, Anthony Bourdain.
Produced by arthouse studio A24 – a company that has developed a cult following of cinephiles, with projects renowned for their striking visuals and outsider protagonists – it comes as no surprise that Tony has the potential to become an instant classic, and a surefire favourite for the indie community.
Set amongst the idyllic seaside landscape of Provincetown, Massachusetts, you can almost smell through the screen the salty Cape Cod air that Patti Page sings about as we witness the formative summer of 1975 that profoundly altered the trajectory of Bourdain’s life and career. Tony (Dominic Sessa) runs away from home after missing out on a prestigious summer writing fellowship that he was confident he was about to get. He subsequently chases the girl he fancies, Nancy (Emilia Jones) up the coast and, in a pathetic attempt to woo her, deceives her into believing the fellowship is the very reason he’s there.
Upon arrival, Tony wallows in self-pity, becoming inebriated in seafood restaurant The Flagship and starting a fight, where he then proceeds to get tossed onto the street and promptly retrieved by the same individual: the unnamed “Chef” (Antonio Banderas, the other ‘Tony’). Chef takes Tony under his wing, allowing him to sleep on his hammock for free on the condition that he works as a potwasher in his restaurant, where he’s relegated to the menial tasks. It’s here that Chef notices Tony’s potential and coaches him, introducing him to the ins and outs of cooking. Tony had a rude awakening every morning as Chef splashed him with seawater, but his real awakening occurred in the kitchen of The Flagship.
Every shot of Tony was a treat – to be expected from an A24 release. This is thanks to cinematographer Michael Bauman, a frequent collaborator with filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson and nominee for the 2025 Academy Award for Best Cinematography for One Battle After Another. Bauman handcrafted a visually stunning piece of work, with a palette featuring delectable notes of azures and oranges. The tight cinematography deviated from Johnson’s usual filmmaking style, which heavily features a guerrilla, mockumentary technique, demonstrating the breadth of his directorial vision. However, in an interview, Johnson speaks about how he maintained his DIY cinematography with his “layered heads” shooting technique prevalent throughout his body of work in the production of Tony. This involved him physically moving Sessa during long, intense takes to both create seamlessness and immerse the spectator in Tony’s psychology and experience.
There were an abundance of precious moments scattered throughout Tony that helped construct such a delicate portrait of the most formative summer of Bourdain’s life; from the mesmerising sequence showing the intricate process of Chef and Tony making ketchup – almost turning it into a form of art – to the scene where their close bond is really cemented, where they go fishing and then eat together on the sand by a bonfire. These become the very moments that ignite Bourdain’s passion for cooking.
What made Tony shine for me was the decision to avoid following the traditional cradle-to-grave narrative structure that has burgeoned from an era of boundless biopics. The audience will likely be aware of Bourdain’s tragic end – taking his own life while staying in Kaysersberg, France in 2018, while filming his CNN series Parts Unknown. But rather than turning the film into a tragedy, Johnson (also being a writer for the film) instead hones in on one small – albeit the most transformative – chapter of Bourdain’s gritty, multifaceted life: when he was ‘Tony’ before he was ‘Anthony’. Biopics can be guilty of sensationalising a person’s life, but Johnson treated Bourdain’s with dignity by merely focusing on the humble roots of his fame and success. Tony serves as an ode to the revolutionary chef, rather than an all-encapsulating documentation of his days, and the deterioration of them. But the knowledge that the spectator holds about the subject does somewhat undermine the attempted optimism of the ending – it creates a profound, bittersweet emotional response.
The biopic genre is generally overdone and the representation of different eras can be so contrived, as I found with Bohemian Rhapsody and 2026’s Michael. Tony instead is subtle when capturing the charm of its period, from the scene of the drive-in cinema screening of Jaws, to Tony’s Stooges t-shirt, or the Brian Eno needle-drop.
The standout performance for me here was absolutely Dominic Sessa, who embodies the arrogant yet vulnerable adolescent protagonist. He’s crafted a tender performance with such an expressive face that exposed the depth and soul of the complex figure he was depicting. I noticed stark parallels between the casting of Sessa in Tony and The Holdovers: the New England-set Christmas film responsible for the surge of his fame. In both, he portrays a precocious, callow misfit who forms an unlikely friendship with his older male mentor-slash-father figure, experiencing moments of hostility and tension. It does beg the question of whether his character profile can extend beyond a grumpy, spoilt juvenile in the world of the ’70s American East Coast. But even if this is the mere extent of his range, he continues to deliver a stellar performance every time.
A significant weakness was the casting of Leo Woodall, known for his breakthrough role in HBO’s award-winning social satire series The White Lotus. I’ve always viewed him as a bit of a one-trick pony – meant much more pejoratively than the way I just posited Sessa – often portraying a charming, flirtatious heartthrob Brit. While he somewhat diverts from that in his role as Sal – an aggressive, alpha male, drug addict chef – I think he delivers an abysmal performance, topped withan unconvincing American accent. He’s all the craze at the moment as a sex symbol, but there were certainly better candidates for the role. Ultimately, I thought that his performance detracted from the exceptional acting of the rest of the ensemble cast.
Films and television series about chefs, cooking and kitchens are having their sizzling-hot moment, with the likes of The Bear, BoilingPoint, and The Menu.Tony serves as a fresh successor to the genre that displays both the passion and wrath of chefs – something that anyone who has worked in hospitality will be all too familiar with!
