Some people change the way we eat. Others change the way we travel. Anthony Bourdain changed both.
Last night, Canada’s 100 Best caught an advance screening of TONY, the upcoming A24 film from Canadian director Matt Johnson (BlackBerry, Nirvana the Band the Show).
There aren’t many tougher audiences than a theatre full of people who’ve spent their lives in restaurants – from the dish pit to the pass. Their biggest reactions came during service. Not because the scenes were over the top, but because they weren’t. The pace. The pressure. The adrenaline. The banter. Anyone who’sworked a line has seen some version of it before. Johnson understands this.
Rather than trying to cover Bourdain’s entire life, TONY sticks to one formative summer in Provincetown in 1975. Before Kitchen Confidential. Before No Reservations. Before Parts Unknown. Before Anthony Bourdain became Anthony Bourdain. Johnson keeps the story in the kitchen. The soundtrack has the line’s restless, maverick energy. The clambake scene marks the moment Tony starts becoming Anthony.
Dominic Sessa is uncannily convincing as the young Bourdain, alongside Antonio Banderas, Emilia Jones, Dagmara Domińczyk, Rich Sommers, Stavros Halkias and Leo Woodall.
We left the theatre wanting to reread Kitchen Confidential. There may not be a stronger endorsement than that.
TONY opens in theatres across Canada on August 14.
