Anthony Bourdain Biopic ‘Tony’ Arrives On Streaming This Week

Dominic Sessa and Leo Woodall in “Tony.”

A24

“Tony,” starring Dominic Sessa as the young Anthony Bourdain, has arrived on streaming, marking the second time the late iconic chef has been portrayed in a screen project based on his bestselling memoir.

Bourdain, of course, achieved fame as a chef, author and travel documentarian for the series Parts Unknown before his tragic death in June 2018 at age 61. While director Morgan Neville’s chronicled Bourdain’s life and career in the critically acclaimed documentary Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain in 2021, the chef’s stories have also been examined through a pair of narrative projects — in the 2005 sitcom Kitchen Confidential and now, in the feature film Tony.

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Kitchen Confidential was, of course, inspired by Bourdain’s bestselling 2000 memoir Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. Starring Bradley Cooper as Jack Bourdain — a fictionalized version of Anthony Bourdain — Kitchen Confidential ran only 13 episodes on FOX in 2005 before its cancelation.

While the sitcom was based on Bourdain’s memoir, the chef had little to do with the series apart from providing the source material.

Now, more than 25 years after the publication of Kitchen Confidential, director Matt Johnson mined the first two chapters of Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential novel for Tony, starring Sessa as the chef in his formative years. Set in 1975 in Provincetown, Mass., the film chronicles aspiring writer Bourdain’s dive into the chaotic world of the restaurant kitchen — a move that will change the trajectory of his life.

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Sessa — who is a relative newcomer in showbiz following his debut role opposite Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph in the 2023 Best Picture Oscar nominee The Holdovers — told NBC’s Today in early August that getting a chance to explore the mind of the young Bourdain provided him with some valuable lessons.

Among them, he told Today, was “just leading with the truth” and “being honest and being OK with not being a fully formed person yet.”

“I think I’m at this age where I, and for a lot of young people as well, want to be respected, want status that you haven’t necessarily earned yet,” Sessa told Today. “Learning the right way to do that and to actually understand your potential is life-changing.”

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Rated R, Tony opened in limited release on Aug. 7 and expanded to theaters nationwide on Aug. 21. As the film nears the end of its theatrical run, Tony has earned $14.7 million domestically and $3.1 million internationally for a worldwide box office tally of $17.8 million. The film had a production budget of “less than $15 million,” according to IndieWire.