Instead of cramming the colossal scope of Bourdain’s journeyman life into one movie, Tony narrows its focus onto that summer. Seacia Pavao Dominic Sessa as Tony and Emilia Jones as Nancy in Tony (2026)Tony introduces us to young Bourdain in a bar near Vassar College (the chef’s unfinished alma mater). Seacia Pavao Dominic Sessa as Tony and Leo Woodall as Sal in Tony (2026)My parents dropped me into a similar crucible in my early teens. Loss, too, was a critical part of kitchen life, where people came and went on a dime and addiction was ever-present. It’s one of the film’s most poignant moments, as we (alongside Sessa’s Tony) come to realize that although, in many ways, the kitchen is a life raft—it can’t always save everyone.