Star Cast: Dominic Sessa, Antonio Banderas, Leo Woodall, and Emilia Jones
Director: Matt Johnson
What’s Good: The performances are top-level, so much so that it is easy to see this being heavily awarded during awards season.
What’s Bad: It doesn’t really detach itself from its coming-of-age trappings, and in that way, there are no surprises; you know what will happen and when.
Loo Break: The film is only 100 minutes, so there’s little room for a break, especially with its breakneck pacing.
Watch or Not?: Yes, this is a must-watch, even if you don’t know who Anthony Bourdain was.
Language: English (with subtitles)
Available On: Theaters
Runtime: 106 Minutes
User Rating:
Opening:
Biopics, some love them, some hate them, with good reason as this type of movie can achieve something truly majestic, when they become beautiful character studies that show how it is to live, and how things can be achieved, and lost in this life, true drama, but they can also be quite annoying, cliche, and basic at their most primal level, and after all those music biopics that have plagued the screens after the success of Bohemian Rhapsody, a biopic like Tony, feels like a breath of fresh air.
Tony Movie Review: Script Analysis
Director Matt Johnson, alongside Matthew Miller, Todd Bartels, and Lou Howe, manage to conjure a script that feels real, engaging, dramatic, and funny, all the things that Anthony Bourdain; celebrity chef, natural-born rebel, and far and wide adventurer was in life, and all the things he showed people throughout the years on television, and in his writings, a truly fascinating figure of our times, with his demons, but also with high virtues that are easy to imitate.
Matt Johnson as guided the script to be the shape of Bourdain himself, a raw, dramatic, and funny combination of scenes inside the coming-of-age structure that we all know and love, and so, while many plot-points become quite predictable, the script still works because it is genuine it is depiction of his many elements; the kitchen life, the harsh nature of relationships in the work place, and, of course, the nature of love, and how hard it is to get it.
The dialogue comes fast, and the lines never fall into the melodrama territory that so often plagues this type of movie, yes, there are many intense moments between characters, but what is being said feels just right for the moment, while the plot progression is just the formula that has been proven time and time again, with this film being just one more proof that seeing an underdog achieve his goal is just cathartic.
The structure flows quite well, and by the end, I think many will get an understanding of how Bourdain became who he was, and a lesson that even when lost, we all have something that belongs only to us, something that can serve as a guide and will make us who we are supposed to be; we only have to find it.
Tony Movie Review: Star Performance
In a way, Tony is all about its performances, as Johnson has gathered quite a cast, and it feels just right, especially when it comes to Dominic Sessa, who shined just a couple of years ago with his performances in The Holdovers, and now, here, on central stage as Anthony Bourdain, he hits it out of the park, and I see awards in his future, or at least the recognition of being a powerful new talent in the scene.
The rest of the cast also shines in the supporting roles, with Antonio Banderas especially stealing basically every scene he is in, as he is the perfect mentor for Bourdain, and just exactly what he needed at that point in life, and it is always great to see Emilia Jones, a talented actress that in my opinion needs to appear in more movies, so having her in here is a big plus.
Tony Movie Review: Direction, Music
Matt Johnson has already proven he is a good director, with films like Nirvanna, and Blackberry under his belt, he has nothing to prove, and here in Tony he just shows off what he knows, and it just works, with his raw, almost documentary style filmmaking doing wonders for the story and for those of us who knew Bourdain mostly through his TV work, it feels like we are just there with him once more, in another adventure.
The camera work, music, and sets all bring with them a bit of the reality the story needs to work, but it is the editing that really does wonder here, keeping everything flowing and just giving the film the energy it needs to fulfill its goal, so props to the editing team, Curt Lobb and Robert Upchurch, for their work here.
Tony Movie Review: The Last Word
Tony is maybe, one of the best films of the year, and this is coming from someone who doesn’t gel often with biopics, but here, the subject is fascinating and the team bringing his story to life, is doing so, in such a way that it feels genuine and full of passion, even when the trappings of the genre end up making the entire experience a bit too safe, nevertheless, it works, and you will definitely see this film showing up during award season.
Tony Trailer
Tony releases on 21st August, 2026.
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