Anthony Bourdain was a celebrity chef. He wrote a best-selling book called Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (2000). He achieved further success with several, television programs. One was on the Food Network. A couple were on the Travel Channel. One was on CNN. All of his shows combined his love of food and travel. Several of his TV programs won Emmy Awards. He was clearly beloved. He died in 2018 at the age of 61. This film, directed and co-written by Matt Johnson (Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie and BlackBerry), is somewhat of an adaptation of Kitchen Confidential, focusing exclusively on the summer of 1975 when Bourdain supposedly worked in his first restaurant in any meaningful way, although reportedly the facts here have been fudged somewhat.
Dominic Sessa (Now You See Me: Now You Don't and The Holdovers) stars as Anthony Bourdain, aka "Tony." It's 1975 and he's a student at Vassar College. He aspires to be a writer. He applies for a writing fellowship in New York City. Through a series of circumstances, he becomes stranded in Provincetown, Massachusetts, with no money. He could call his parents who live in New Jersey to come get him, but he's helped by the owner and head chef of a seafood place, so he decides to stay.
Antonio Banderas (Pain and Glory and The Mask of Zorro) co-stars as the unnamed "Chef" who owns the seafood place. He's an older guy who has seemingly had a long career working in kitchens. He seems a little burnt out and possibly ready to retire. He doesn't seem to have any family, but he's well known and seemingly well-liked in the community. He wants to turn the restaurant over to someone eventually, but his current kitchen staff doesn't seem like their hearts are truly in it. Banderas' character gives Tony a job, mostly out of pity, but Tony does exhibit signs that he takes working in the kitchen more seriously than the others. Tony seems to be taking to Chef's mentorship more than the others too.
At the beginning, Tony expresses interest in writing. Specifically, he wants to author a novel that's a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age story. It's ironic because that's exactly what this film becomes. This film is allegedly Bourdain's bildungsroman. On the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, one of the hosts brought up The Fabelmans (2022) as a comparison, as that film was arguably a bildungsroman for Steven Spielberg whose proxy was Sammy Fabelman. I wasn't a huge fan of that Oscar-nominated film, but that narrative did demonstrate why the Spielberg proxy was worthy of being the legend that Spielberg became. Here, I'm not sure that the Bourdain proxy is depicted as being worthy or special in any kind of way. This isn't a requirement of a bildungsroman, but it's a good idea if a protagonist stands out or is seemingly unique in some fashion. This is unless the point is that he is an average Joe. Otherwise, this film could be taken as a slice-of-life biopic where we are simply to revel in the early or formative years of a famous person. This is all fine, but the protagonist here never does anything that is particularly interesting or engaging. He's basically a lovesick puppy who arguably is good at lying.
What's interesting is that this film has a supporting cast that in their brief moments or even long moments prove to be more interesting and engaging than the protagonist. I wish this film had made anyone of the supporting cast the lead instead of Tony, starting with Banderas' character. Leo Woodall (Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy and The White Lotus) plays Sal, an oyster shucker and possible drug addict whose character by design is vastly more intriguing. Monica Raymund (Chicago Fire and The Good Wife) plays Mary, the bartender at Chef's restaurant. She's suggested to be lesbian, but her character gets such short shrift in that regard. Yet, the mere suggestion made her more intriguing than Tony ever was. The film is set in Provincetown, which is known to have a significant LGBTQ population, so it wouldn't be a surprise to have her be openly gay, but if so, the film brushes by her without delving into her as a person at all.
This would've been fine too, if I were more engaged with Tony. Sessa gives a good performance of a cocky college student who is taken down a peg when rejected and humbled by the demands of a fast-paced, small kitchen. The moments between him and Banderas are warm and charming. Their relationship of mentorship mirrors what I loved in The Holdovers (2023). That film didn't short shrift its supporting characters and it had a better dramatic hook or not as cliché a hook as whether or not the young man in question will get the girl, but to Johnson's credit, his film doesn't necessarily hinge on that much either.
Rated R for pervasive language, drug use, sexual content and nudity.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 46 mins.
In theaters.
