Tony
Of the many film subgenres out there, the ‘cut the shit, get a skill’ subgenre is one of my very favourites. Films in this category usually contain a smartarse male protagonist who is humbled into a different vocation than the one he’s been delusionally chasing; Rushmore and School of Rock are beloved examples. The Maxes and Deweys of cinema teach us that a dream + entitlement is not a formula for growth and that sometimes, to move up, you have to be taken down a peg.
Matt Johnson’s hot boys
The latest in this subgenre is Matt Johnson’s Tony, an Anthony Bourdain biopic starring The Holdovers’ Dominic Sessa as the titular smartarse. The film tracks Bourdain’s early failure to launch as a writer and his strategic pivot to kitchenhand in The Flagship, a lobster shack that just so happens to be in Provincetown, the very location of the girl he’s chasing.
When we meet Tony he’s been running his mouth to anyone who’ll listen about this writing fellowship that he’s definitely going to get because the interview went well and the panel said they’d be in touch soon. As someone who’s made this mistake multiple times in her life, I empathise and I cringe at the inevitable result of such a self curse.
Tony does not get the fellowship but rather than wallowing in self pity (and looking like a failure to his mother), he responds to the panel’s rejection call with a “TYSM” and departs for Cape Cod to “start his fellowship.” It’s not a lie if you believe it.
Tony’s first night in town ends in him being kicked out of The Flagship for being drunk and disorderly and not paying his beer/oyster tab. But the kicker outerer is Antonio Banderas and he takes pity on this pathless youth, allowing him to sleep on his porch hammock and work in his establishment as a dishwasher.
Dominic Sessa and Emilia Jones
As the film trods happily along its established biopic path, Tony learns the value of community and punctuality and striving for excellence rather than just saying you’re excellent. But he also fucks over people who don’t deserve to be fucked over and the film isn’t afraid to show us Anthony Bourdain’s harder learnings (as drawn from his book, 2000’s Kitchen Confidential).
This is a coming-of-age crowdpleaser with recognisable beats and another stellar performance from Dominic Sessa, who I’m told looks and sounds an uncanny amount like Bourdain in his youth. Antonio Banderas is the epitome of a wholesome as Tony’s mentor (credited as ‘Chef’), the antidote to J. K. Simmons in Whiplash and the most tolerant and forgiving role model a young man could have.
While she’s only in the film for glimpses Dagmara Dominczyk’s impact is appropriately large as Tony’s mother, a woman of such academic learning and intimidation to Tony that he (and we, at the beginning) completely misreads her disinterest in his writing pursuits as a lack of faith. The pride on her face at the end of the film when he (this is not a spoiler, this is a true story) gets into culinary school is proof that she just wanted him to stop fucking posturing and actually do something.
Tony doesn’t hit the heights of a certain other Matt Johnson film released this year but it’s got a great soundtrack and strong performances. I had a lovely time living in its world and it taught me the importance of knowing how not to put out an oil fire, so that’s valuable.
☆☆☆☆
