The late Anthony Bourdain captured the minds, hearts, and stomachs of people around the world, much like his famous mortadella sandwich in his widely-praised book Appetites. So the pressure was certainly on the creative team behind A24’s Tony to make the film feel true to a man who made everyone feel like they were sitting at his table, taking a bite out of life. 

Screenwriters Todd Bartels, Lou Howe, Matthew Miller, and co-writer and director Matt Johnson chose to focus the film on the first two chapters of Bourdain’s bestseller Kitchen Confidential, focusing on his early, characteristically splashy leap out of college into the kitchen of a Provincetown seafood restaurant. 

Dominic Sessa, winner of the 2024 Critics Choice Award for Best Young Actor/Actress, plays the young man with a zeal that feels like the beginnings of how audiences would come to know Bourdain years later. CCA nominee Antonio Banderas plays Chef, the man who begrudgingly offers Tony his deck hammock to sleep on, and uses a bucket of water as an alarm clock. 

In a summer when movie theater attendance is giving box office watchers the most excitement they’ve had in years, Tony is contributing mightily, with just over $13 million in worldwide revenue so far on a budget estimated to be just under $15 million. It is still showing on over 1600 screens in the United States.