This image released by A24 shows Dominic Sessa, left, and Leo Woodhall in a scene from “Tony.” (A24 via AP)<\/small><\/p>\n
2026-07-29T16:29:28Z<\/p>\n
\u201cTony,\u201d the Anthony Bourdain<\/a><\/span> biopic, is a coming-of-age tale for a modern culinary giant. Set over just a summer, it\u2019s also clearly an appetizer. And like all first courses, it leaves you with a nice first taste \u2014 but still hungry.<\/p>\n Director and co-writer Matt Johnson<\/a><\/span> has frustratingly taken liberties with a formative period in Bourdain\u2019s life<\/a><\/span>, but still only manages to tell the story of how a callow lad became somewhat of a less callow lad after toiling in a restaurant kitchen on Cape Cod in 1975.<\/p>\n In \u201cTony,\u201d the world-weary, forever romantic, noodle-slurping Bourdain that we would fall in love with decades later via travel shows like \u201cParts Unknown\u201d stays firmly out of grasp. What\u2019s perhaps most frustrating is that this could have been a fine movie without Bourdain at its center at all. Who doesn\u2019t like a good coming of age? Why did it have to be Bourdain if Bourdain never gets to be Bourdain?<\/p>\n