A 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain travels to Provincetown and stumbles into the chaotic world of a restaurant kitchen, setting off a summer that will shape the course of his life.

Anthony Bourdain, the chef, writer and television personality, committed suicide just under a decade ago, but if anything his fame and influence have only grown in the years since his death. ‘Tony’, a biopic from director Matt Johnson, doesn’t attempt to cover his entire life, instead telling a semi-fictionalised story about Bourdain’s first experience working in a kitchen as a 19-year-old, long before he became the figure we now know.

It begins in New Jersey in 1975, where a young Bourdain (Dominic Sessa) has ambitions of becoming a writer and is awaiting news about a scholarship in New York. Like many 19-year-olds, he has that blend of cockiness and insecurity, boasting about his potential scholarship to Nancy (Emilia Jones), his high-school love interest. When the scholarship doesn’t materialise, he follows Nancy to Provincetown, only to discover she has a boyfriend, sending him on a drinking binge at a local restaurant that ends with him being kicked out, beaten up and robbed by Sal (Leo Woodall), one of the chefs. Through a slightly unlikely turn of events, Bourdain subsequently finds himself working alongside Sal in the same kitchen, discovering an environment that will ultimately change the course of his life.

The ramshackle restaurant operates as a dysfunctional family of sorts, filled with people who fight, drink and generally make each other’s lives difficult, but who also gradually provide Bourdain with a sense of belonging. Central to that is his relationship with the restaurant’s head chef, played by Antonio Banderas, a man whose talent clearly exceeds the surroundings he finds himself working in. The mentor-mentee relationship between them gives the film much of its emotional weight, and Banderas is superb, delivering the kind of warm, lived-in performance that I hope isn’t forgotten when awards season comes around.

Dominic Sessa is equally impressive in the central role, capturing the confidence, insecurity and curiosity of a young Bourdain without making the performance feel like an impersonation. After his breakthrough in ‘The Holdovers’, it’s further evidence of what a talented young actor he is. The film is sweet without becoming schmaltzy, and manages to tell a very effective coming of age story in the guise of a biopic. I’m a fan of Anthony Bourdain, so I was always primed to enjoy ‘Tony’, but much of its charm is that you don’t really need to know anything about him for the story to work. It could almost be about a completely fictional young man finding his place in the world, with our knowledge of who Bourdain eventually becomes simply adding another layer to an already very enjoyable film. One of my recent favourites for sure.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Matt Johnson

Starring: Dominic Sessa, Emilia Jones, Dagmara Domińczyk, Rich Sommer, Stavros Halkias, Leo Woodall and Antonio Banderas

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt33095251/