Matt Johnson’s Anthony Bourdain biopic Tony is the breeziest of coming-of-age movies in the truest summer sense, something like the best day on the beach. It’s funny, it’s tender, and it earns its poignant moments instead of reaching for unearned sentiment or clapback references.
Dominic Sessa plays the fish-out-of-water lead, and he’s restrained in a way that makes the character’s confusion land harder. Watching him learn to swim in the deep end of kitchen mechanics, all knife nicks and burns and rushed orders, is where the movie finds its comedy. The duct tape Band-Aid moment got one of the biggest laughs in the theater. Though it’s a small gag, it says everything about a kid figuring out survival “on the fly,” as we say in restaurants.
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There’s a real vulnerability running under the humor. After his apprenticeship falls apart, he’s drifting, like weed loose in the ocean, and even in that state he still lies to impress a woman. That contradiction, wanting to be honest while reaching for a version of himself he hasn’t earned yet, is the emotional core of the film. It’s funny watching a straight man wander Provincetown with a photo, looking for the woman of his dreams, but it’s also quietly sad. Rejection does strange things to people, and the movie doesn’t shy away from that.
Anthony Banderas is excellent as the wise mentor figure, giving the film its steadiness. And the food itself gets real attention. The cooking montages capture the trial and error of learning a craft, the failed attempts, the small wins, the moment you finally understand how to savor something you made yourself.
The setting does a lot of work too. So many shots of Provincetown, MA, and it was filmed in Dennis, MA, where a second cousin lives. I actually walked down one of those streets during a family reunion last summer, so seeing it on screen hit differently for me. The audience ate it up like the best comfort-food meal. People cheered at the best moments and went quiet for the right ones too. One line stuck with me: “I like the way I feel when you look at me.” Simple, sweet, and exactly the kind of moment this movie does best.
