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A Breezy, Engaging Tony Encapsulates a Summer of Self-Discovery

       “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 ecosystem ahead of a couple much larger projects. He proves well-suited though for its laid-back summertime coming-of-age charm, a modest atmosphere that resonates beyond its weight. It may be his best movie yet, though a big part of that must also come down to his leading man.
Dominic Sessa is the ideal fit for the young Tony (only his mother calls him ‘Anthony’). With a mastery of affect and body language that neutralizes a deficiency in physical resemblance, he embodies this flawed and at times frankly horrible figure on a micro level. It’s there from the start and his overconfidence in securing a prestigious writing fellowship just one year into his studies at Vassar College, and his inability to maturely accept when he is denied it. His form of lashing out is to run away from home in New Jersey to the tourist town of Provincetown, Massachusetts where Nancy (Emilia Jones), a girl he has a crush on is spending the summer. Lying to her about getting the fellowship and that being a reason he is there, the pompous young lad is forced by necessity to take a job as a dishwasher at a local restaurant called The Flagship, run by a passionate though enigmatic Spanish Chef (Antonio Banderas). Yet this is not so typical a screenplay as to have this be merely a journey of enlightenment by association to a culinary calling -though it is a factor. Tony and his experiences over this summer are more multi-faceted.
It is the summer of 1975 specifically, and while there are a few allusions to the time (such as a drive-in theatre showing the biggest movie of the moment, Jaws), for the most part the film doesn’t spotlight a 70s aesthetic -certainly not in the way that Sessa’s previous film The Holdovers did. Rather than being a mark against the film though, the story is invested with more of a frozen timeless feel -the fact that it is isolated to this one time and place in Bourdain’s life is really valuable to this effect. Even amid tension and dismal behaviour, there is a lovely engrossing atmosphere about Provincetown and its maritime charms, lost on Tony but very present in the soul of Chef.
But Chef is not a romantic figure -he is a harsh master yet the model of one whose actions have a constructive point. Determined not to let Tony sleep in late for work (a fireable offense), he wakes him up every morning with a bucket of water to the face. He's unafraid to chew out staff that question his authority, he even eventually starts making Tony come to church with him. But he never feels unreasonable, because he identifies something in Tony beyond his apathetic irresponsible manner, which we do too.
A good movie can present an asshole as someone the audience can engage and invest in. Sessa's Tony is one hell of an asshole -manipulative, self-destructive (and self-sabotaging), inconsiderate -especially towards Nancy, whose dissolved relationship he is quick to take advantage of whilst maintaining his fellowship ruse- and yet he is an intensely charismatic and gripping character. There is an impressive confidence to the way Sessa carries himself here, even where Tony is humiliated, his sharpness of wit and personality is very naturalistic. Reformation is of course inevitable, but a lot of it happens in subtle ways, indicated by critical details in Johnson's direction and Sessa's choices. For a portion of the story, Tony falls under the sway of an impulsive co-worker Sal (Leo Woodall), who becomes almost a model of social defiance and sexual proficiency; but an escalated confrontation between Sal and Chef that fully reveals his danger and recklessness leaves Tony shaken. From there a marked shift can be observed in his attitude, even as he continues to make mistakes and act out of selfishness -his true character is more easily palpable.
Johnson subverts the very typical biopic expectations to the point you often forget the story being told is a true one. The arc at the heart of the film is not about Tony's rise to fame, it's not even really about his falling in love with cooking. It is about an environment and experience that informed a young man's self -discovery and consequently changed his life. It just happens that food played a big peripheral part in that. Consequently, decent attention is paid to the food and it often looks very good, as would be hoped for in a cozy seafood spot off the beach. There is a sense the movie communicates of reverence and appreciation for the food, the only thing that Tony puts genuine effort towards in the entire movie despite the reputation he would like to convey as an intense and driven writer. It is perhaps the realization of this, in concert with the respect he can’t help but develop for Chef that the audience might take away as the crux of his inevitable career shift. An important scene near the end illustrates the communal power of food and we can see in Tony a spark of warmth not often expressed through the movie. Also, one can’t discount how good he looked in the photos he had Nancy take of him as a chef.
Tony is restrained in this as far as biopics go. It is a character study not a puff piece, and it chooses not to engage at all with any of the stuff that made Anthony Bourdain famous, interested more in the person than the persona. It doesn’t attempt a clean narrative. The epilogue notes that Bourdain never interacted again with Nancy (or whatever composite she really is) -despite her being key to how he got to Provincetown. Nor did that relationship with Chef (similarly a composite figure) ever resurface again. And sure there is something a touch sad in that, but it is profound the notion of one summer experience and one impermanent relationship playing such a huge part in a man’s personal and professional journey. Matt Johnson and Dominic Sessa remembered that he is just a man, and constructed a thrilling character out of him. And a startlingly beautiful movie as well.

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