Tony: Film Gang Review

Just released, Tony is a 2026 American biographical film about Anthony Bourdain’s early years working in Provincetown, Massachusetts, stories from which were featured in his 2000 memoir, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. The film is directed by Matt Johnson and distributed by A24 Studios. If you are expecting the film to be about Anthony Bourdain as most people know him from CNN’s No Reservations and Parts Unknown—spinning yarns and imbibing—you may be disappointed. But if you are open to going along for the ride and seeing what informs and shapes a young man trying to figure out who he is, then settle in. Tony, played by Dominic Sessa, best known from The Holdovers, captures Bourdain as a struggling writer—a somewhat undisciplined and rudderless young man. His conventional, albeit quirky, intellectual mom instilled in him a lust for language and travel, which became his mainstay. The story begins with Tony full of hope that he will win a writing scholarship at Vassar. When that falls apart, he lies to his family and his love interest, Nancy, played by Emilia Jones, telling them everything has gone according to plan. Tony, showing signs of despair, moves to Provincetown under the pretense that he is there for the summer to pursue his writing and receive mentoring for a novel. Once in Provincetown, all hell breaks loose with drunken nights, bar fights, and Tony’s awkwardness around people. After Tony is thrown out of a bar, the proprietor, portrayed by Antonio Banderas, rescues the young thug from himself. How? By putting him to work in his restaurant washing dishes in exchange for sleeping on his hammock. Tony goes through his paces with the hardened kitchen staff, including Sal, played by Leo Woodall, who steals the show as a rough-and-tumble, bad-influence friend to Tony. Tony eventually softens Nancy with his unique charm, but the relationship does not fully develop. They are two young people, each trying to find themselves while pondering big questions. Banderas also warms to Tony and genuinely becomes a father figure and mentor. Yet Tony continues to disappoint those closest to him. Some people are not meant to be tamed, and he proved to be one of them. I enjoyed how the director balanced Tony as both likable and unlikable. He was probably always a complex person who lived his life until the light went out. If you are a fan of Kitchen Confidential, or Anthony Bourdain in general, Tony is worth seeing. It gives us a glimpse into an earlier chapter of a life the public did not know as well—what informed him, shaped him, and ultimately led him to become the beloved storyteller he was. For KSQD’s Film Gang: Susan Lovegren