The film has a 95% critics’ score and a 92% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Tony, the new movie about Anthony Bourdain and one of JOE’s favourite films of 2026 so far, has just been released in cinemas.
A quote from the famed chef and writer describing his younger self opens the movie. It reads: “I was – to be frank – a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, and badly in need of a good ass-kicking.”
From there, we meet this young lout at 17 (played by Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers). It’s 1975, and Anthony ‘Tony’ Bourdain has just applied for a writing fellowship that would send him to New York City.
In fact, he’s so confident he will be chosen for the fellowship that he lies to his family (Dagmara Domińczyk and Rich Sommer) and the girl he has a crush on, Nancy (Emilia Jones, The Running Man), telling them the writing opportunity is already his.
As expected, another student is eventually selected for the fellowship. Feeling angry, disappointed and rejected, Bourdain impulsively flees home. He decides to travel to the coastal resort town of Provincetown, Massachusetts, where Nancy said she would be spending the summer.
As Bourdain spends the summer working in the restaurant and getting to know its staff, he begins to find his true calling.
Watch the trailer for Tony here:
Tony avoids the well-documented years of Anthony Bourdain’s life, imagining instead the “one magical summer” where he transitioned from that “thoughtless young lout” into the man who would go on to inspire countless chefs, cooks, and food lovers worldwide.
A hangout film only succeeds if it’s fun or fascinating to spend time within the world of its story. Thankfully, Tony’s vibes are never less than intoxicating.
Co-written and directed by on-the-rise director Matt Johnson (Blackberry, this year’s Nirvanna the Band the Show), the coastal period setting is gorgeous and tactile. This is as the kitchen-set scenes hum with the same energy, humour and specificity that made people fall in love with The Bear.
As the young Bourdain, still going by just Tony, falls in love with the idea of cooking, you might too as you watch along.
Antonio Banderas and Dominic Sessa in Tony
Johnson comes from a comedy background and constantly locates unexpected pockets of humour. He finds laughs in Bourdain’s inexperience and youth-related setbacks, as well as his blossoming mentorship under two different colleagues.
Dominic Sessa is note-perfect again, not long after The Holdovers, where he played another teen in the 1970s whose cockiness hid deep insecurity. While Tony’s female characters are not quite as developed as you like, and it eventually succumbs to some biopic cliches, for much of its running time, the movie is an exquisitely prepared cinematic meal.
Tony is in cinemas now.