I and other critics like to bemoan movies that operate on pure nostalgia. But I get it, the comfort of the past is so alluring that it is easy to want to escape into -hence why it feels like such a lazy device in movies. The 2020s are awash in nostalgia in a cynical effort to cash in on fond memories and youthful feelings, and while it’s never been as prolific a characteristic it is not without some precedent. Previous decades and other generations had their own nostalgia-bait though it took on different forms and wasn’t entirely tied to pop culture. Still, it was driven by that same sensation. In the 1970s, perhaps the best nostalgia picture was George Lucas’s American Graffiti with its image of carefree California youths in the early 1960s pre-Vietnam. But an equally popular one was Summer of ‘42 . Summer of ‘42 is an interesting nostalgia film though because its nostalgia is melancholy in nature. It is reflective of a period of youth marked by innocence but also the loss of it, fe...
“I was -to be frank- a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive, and thoughtless young lout, and badly in need of a good ass-kicking.” Not a lot of biopics will open on a quote like this from their subject -usually their goal is to celebrate said subject and not emphasize the flaws in their character so starkly. But Anthony Bourdain was nothing if not frank, one gets the sense he would not want to be misrepresented as some two-dimensional genius chef who made the world a better place. That quote sets the tone for Tony , which limits its scope to merely Bourdain’s second summer during college -not exactly a period of high esteem for most of us, let alone an insecure kid with a big ego who is a pathological liar. That is the image that this movie presents of Bourdain and it is incredibly compelling for that. The film is directed by burgeoning Canadian treasure Matt Johnson -his first American movie and first real test of his abilities in the Hollywood ...