Tony reaches behind the bravado to a different Anthony Bourdain

Tony's baptism by fire — and oil, salt and acid — is a winner In his book Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain wrote these words: "I was — to be frank — a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, and badly in need of a good ass-kicking." Harsh, humbling words that somehow endear you to their subject, despite the warning label. These words now mark the beginning of what its subject would refer to as a bildungsroman; of how "Tony" became the great chef and writer Anthony Bourdain. Tony, directed by Matt Johnson (Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, BlackBerry) and starring Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers), is incredibly confident in its subject matter and visual language, and so convincing in its central thesis, which boils down to something like: "a good ass-kicking builds character", that it hardly needs the pretence. Tony has an immediate look and feel to it that evokes a bygone time without being overly rose tinted, thanks to cinematography by Michael Bauman and lighting by Chris Hill. It's the 1970s, and we are about to see Anthony Bourdain's baptism by fire in his first ever kitchen job in Provincetown, Cape Cod. The food looks spectacular, the water is glistening, and the sky is as blue as can be, but this coming-of-age tale is not without its dark clouds and shadows. A film based on a true story is not easy to nail and biopics, in particular, often crumble under the weight of reverence for their subject. So, it's refreshing that Tony does not shy away from showing the darker sides of the young Bourdain. Set during a short period of his life, when the 19-year-old's pursuit of a girl led to both gruelling hardship and untold opportunity, we see him try, and spectacularly fail, to achieve his dreams of being a writer. His wins are few, his mess-ups are innumerous, and his sardonic wit is less "rockstar TV host" and more "annoying brat". He corrects people's grammar, insists on using academic words in regular settings, and is so cocksure in his approach to women that he fails to notice (or wilfully ignores) when he's not wanted. The success of the flick hinges entirely on depicting Bourdain as a fallible, flawed character, without going so far as to lose audience empathy. Good thing, then, that Dominic Sessa is more than up to the task. He may not be the spitting image of Bourdain, but his naturally lanky limbs and dark curls aid a portrayal that performs best when the actor says little to nothing at all. Sessa embodies that "thoughtless young lout" effortlessly, with a natural magnetism that makes him very easy to watch, and an old-school aura that lends itself to the 1970s very well. Though Anthony would later be known for his wordcraft, this young cad is not yet the Bourdain we know. Instead, Tony finds himself in hot water repeatedly after using his mastery of language to lie, cheat and steal his way through life. You won't love most of the choices he makes, but you'll continue to root for him and audiences will do so regardless of how well they know the actual Bourdain. That's the other tough thing about biopics: when it depicts a person that is so fresh in our collective memory (Bourdain was became world famous in the 2000s, and died in 2018), someone who had fans by the thousands and more than a few folks who had formed parasocial relationships with him (can any writer/foodie say they hadn't?), it needs to convince everyone to get on board with one director's idea of its subject. Johnson's take is nicely balanced between love for its star, and wisdom about the often dark subject matter. Of course, artistic licence is taken with Bourdain's story here, but in choosing to show only one summer of his entire life, Johnson both limits himself creatively and gives himself room for interpretation. It's a smart move: even Bourdain himself would likely have trouble recalling that period of his life with intense accuracy; therefore, Johnson can build his base from Kitchen Confidential and experiment on top of it. The excellent supporting cast features Emilia Jones as Nancy, the woman who would later be Bourdain's first wife, Leo Woodall as loose-cannon line cook Sal, and Stavros Halkias as comic-relief Stavros. But it's Antonio Banderas as the head chef of the Flagship restaurant who truly shines. World weary but never bereft of hope nor passion, Banderas's "Chef" is exactly the kind of mentor that Tony needs: a quiet, self-assured man who will let him sleep on the hammock rent-free, but will wake him up with a cold bucket of seawater every morning before showing him how to make sauce from scratch. He'll make you want to run away from your ordinary job and dive into the culinary arts as soon as possible. Though Tony follows a somewhat predictable narrative structure, it has more than enough going for it to make the cinema trip worth it: specifically, its memorable central performance from Sessa, and what it says about endurance in the face of rejection, as well as following your passions to find where you belong. Both Bourdain diehards and newcomers should walk away from this film feeling satiated. Tony is in cinemas now.