Tony Turns Out To Be Prophetic About Much More Than Anthony Bourdain’s Success  

August 2026

 

You have to wonder about a celebrated chef...

 

Who said he discovered the magic of food for the first time....

 

When he was served vichyssoise as a child on the Queen Mary...

 

Seriously...

 

What had his mother been feeding him...dog food?

 

Now...I didn’t know much about Anthony Bourdain...

 

Except that he would go to exotic locations...

And film himself eating food...

That not only appeared unappetizing...

But looked like it would soon have you hugging the toilet...

 

If it didn’t kill you first...

 

But Tony...

 

A film based on Bourdain’s first youthful foray working in a restaurant....

 

Is a fine little film...

That has been perfectly cast...

 

With Antonio Banderas as Tony’s mentor...

 

A beefed-up Leo Woodall...

Who has either been hanging out at McDonald’s...

Or decided to put on a few to play Tony’s pal, Sal...

Who throws people around for fun....

When he isn’t snorting cocaine...

 

And Dominic Sessa in a fine performance as Tony...

 

A twenty-year-old with a frontal lobe the size of a walnut...

 

Who fashions himself as the next JD Salinger...

 

And goes around brandishing an oversized vocabulary...

As his brand...

 

Yea...that will really get the girls...

 

Tony is a brash, entitled narcissist...

Compulsive liar...

Who steals from his parents...

And others who help him...

 

He is irresponsible ...

And has the impulse control of a two-year-old.....

 

And is so obsessed with a fellow coed...

That he makes all kinds of stupid decisions...

 

So it’s not hard to see how a 61-year-old Bourdain...

Despite all his success...

Would impulsively hang himself in a hotel room after a fight with his girlfriend...

 

So Tony...

 

Foreshadows quite a bit about Bourdain’s...

Future...

 

Good and bad...

 

And this all takes place in a restaurant...

That is basically a seafood shack...

Which would give a health inspector a heart attack...

 

Where they serve lobsters, oysters...

And an array of seafood that would cost a fortune today...

 

Because Duryea’s Lobster Deck on Montauk...

With its wood picnic tables...

Is currently charging $97 for a lobster salad...

 

But then again... that particular “seafood shack”...

Is owned by the CEO of Apollo Global Management...

 

But Tony is set in the 70s....

 

Before the smart set discovered the lobster roll...

 

So I guess you could eat on the cheap in those days...

 

Now this film is another gem from A24...

Which is now the new Miramax...

 

Because it is the studio behind Oscar winners like Moonlight and Everything Everywhere All at Once...

Fine Indy films like Ladybird and Uncut Gems...

As well as shows like Euphoria and Beef....

 

Which have become a welcome respite...

 

From the tired, jumbled mess of sequels and superhero movies...

Which seem to be all the big studios can manage to put out these days...

 

And A24 works with known star directors like Robert Eggers...

As well as the up-and-coming YouTuber Kane Parsons...

 

So thank god...

There is a studio around...

Willing to greenlight...

A little movie...

 

That sheds a lot of light...

 

On the character of a very complicated and successful chef...

And author....

 

Because a lot of what made Bourdain famous...

And ultimately self-destructive...

 

Is well explored in this film...

 

Which... unlike the typical biopic...

Is not a compilation of the man’s greatest hits...

Or a catalogue of his rise to fame...

 

But rather a psychological study...

 

Of a talented, but troubled soul...

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