\n\u201cFolks that work in restaurants do so selflessly,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do it because we care. We do it for love and passion for each other and for people that are coming into our restaurant. We show up all the time for each other. We don\u2019t do it for the accolades, we do it because it\u2019s in the fiber and fabric of who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Houser\u2019s restaurant, for those unfamiliar, is called Cafe Momentum. There, he employs teens coming out of the juvenile justice system, youth who have otherwise been underestimated, misunderstood, or defined by their mistakes. Which brings us to the premise of \u201cTony.\u201d<\/p>\n
Directed by Matt Johnson and written by Todd Bartels, Lou Howe, Matt Johnson and Matt Miller, the\u00a0film follows a 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain through the summer of 1975 in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He fucks up, gets fucked up, tells lies, fights, smokes, steals and ultimately finds some kind of focus in the kitchen of a dive-y oyster bar. The plot is based on some of Bourdain\u2019s own tales from that summer, but it\u2019s not a biopic. It\u2019s an origin story that, to us, indicates that Bourdain\u2019s mythification era has begun.<\/p>\n
Dominic Sessa (\u201cThe Holdovers\u201d) plays the lanky, mop-topped protagonist. Center-frame in almost every scene, he develops a crush on Nancy, played by Emilia Jones (\u201cThe Running Man\u201d). He romanticizes her to the point of impossibility, ultimately trailing her to Cape Cod with no plan except to, well, keep following her around? Who knows. Young Anthony doesn\u2019t ask her many questions, so we don\u2019t really know much about her, and their love story, as it were, is limited to hangdog stares and lame attempts to impress.<\/p>\n
That said, it\u2019s so fun to watch this story unfold. The look of Gerald Ford-era New England is in full effect \u2013 all clapboard bungalows, sea grass and watercolor sunsets. The station wagons, bell bottoms, ringer tees and haircuts are all on-point, as well. Think \u201cJaws,\u201d but remade with catalog models and oversaturated in post-production.<\/p>\n
Anyway, back in the kitchen, young Anthony is taken in by Antonio Banderas, known only as Chef (after getting royally hammered at Chef\u2019s oyster bar the previous night). Chef is the most compelling, well-rounded character in the film. As we peel back his weathered layers, like the pages of his beloved old cookbooks, we learn what, and where, Chef developed his passion for cooking. Not to be outdone by the model citizens of P-town, however, Banderas also looks picture-perfect in his starched whites and fisherman\u2019s sweaters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The rest of the restaurant crew includes two endearing fuck-ups: Sal (Leo Woodall, \u201cThe White Lotus\u201d) and Dimitri (Stavros Halkias, \u201cBugonia\u201d). Sal is a womanizing drug addict, and absolutely the wrong role model for an impressionable teen. So, obviously, Anthony wants to be just like him. That is, until he unpacks all of Sal\u2019s dirty laundry. Again, this side trip is a fun ride, and even though there are needles, crime and violence involved, it maintains a certain Insta-filtered distance from reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As \u201cTony\u201d concludes, young Bourdain is redeemed, ultimately finding some of the selfless motivation that Houser described in his intro speech. No spoilers, but the film\u2019s ending is a pretty happy one. It also nicely tees up a possible sequel.<\/p>\n
Back here in 2026, many commentators believe that the real Anthony Bourdain would\u2019ve hated this film. But really, would he? The nature of his endurance as a world wanderer-slash-culinary curmudgeon owes a lot to his unique and sometimes unpredictable opinions. Wasn\u2019t it fun to watch him slurp his beloved pho, enjoying the simple soup on an almost carnal level while seeming to prefer a cig and cheap coffee to many of the haute plates he was served? He may have liked \u201cTony\u201d just fine. It\u2019s only a summer movie after all, a little escape from the soul-crushing challenge that is day-to-day life. We all need an escape sometimes; nobody knew that better than Bourdain.<\/p>\n
\u201cTony\u201d releases in select theaters this Friday, August 7, and nationwide on August 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Monday, Aug. 3, production company A24 hosted an advance screening of the new film, \u201cTony,\u201d which was…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":982657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,27144,1596,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-982656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-america","tag-chefs","tag-dallas","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117043841453901015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=982656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/982657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}