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Tony review – knives out in tasty reheat of Anthony Bourdain’s memoir
['Peter Bradshaw']
The Guardian
For all the drugs and punch-ups, this is an unexpectedly sentimental coming-of-age story – or maybe origin myth – about the formative youthful kitchen experiences of legendary badass chef Anthony Bourdain.
It is the mid-1970s and Tony effectively runs away from home after failing to get a residential summer writing scholarship that he had assured everyone was in the bag.
Then, having got drunkenly thrown out of a bar serving seafood, pathetic Tony gets hired there as a humble dishwasher by its kindly-stern chef (Antonio Banderas).
As for Sessa himself, Johnson gives him plenty of shots looking silently stricken, or hungover, often sporting a black eye.
There’s some nice support from Rich Sommer and Dagmara Dominczyk as Pierre and Gladys, Tony’s parents, and Banderas always has gentleness and charm.