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TONY MOVIE REVIEW
Everybody knows Anthony Bourdain, probably the best known celebrity chef of the late 20th/early 21st century. Whether it was from his amazing books, like the must-read Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly or one of his shows about travel and food, Bourdain was universally appreciated…except perhaps by people around him in his early chef days. The A24 biopic Tony begins with a quote from Bourdain, “I was – to be frank – a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, and badly in need of a good ass-kicking.” and this is the period of Anthony Bourdain’s life that it focuses on. Directed by Matt Johnson (Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie), the word bildungsroman is a term you’ll hear a lot in the film. Young Tony fancies himself a writer in the making and, at least in this point in his life, generally he is full of shit. Lying constantly to his family and everyone around him, he pretends to have accepted a writing fellowship at Vassar that he was actually turned down for. After ripping some cash out of his father’s wallet in the middle of the night, he takes a bus to Provincetown. He tells everyone, Vassar has him there to work on his novel, but the truth is, he’s following his high school crush, Nancy (Emilia Jones) who is working out there for the summer at a pizza joint. Quickly finding himself down-and-out, he is taken in by Chef (Antonio Banderas) who owns a hole-in-the-wall seafood joint whose seemingly endless well of cranky empathy leads to Tony sleeping for free in a hammock on Chef’s porch and working at his restaurant as a dishwasher. Will Tony get over himself and his unearned massive ego (at this point anyway) long enough to actually start to learn about real cooking? Will he manage to impress the girl despite his constant series of screw-ups while trying? The real question is, what would Bourdain have thought about this film? One of his last long-term assistants, Laurie Woolever has some interesting thoughts on the unpredictability of the man with such things and what he might have said about Tony in her article about the film on the Bon Appétit website. Chris, Wright, Mike, and Eric have thoughts of their own in the movie that they share right here, but not nearly as insightful…mainly that now they’re hungry.
DIRECTED BY: Matt Johnson
STARRING: Dominic Sessa, Emilia Jones, Dagmara Domińczyk, Rich Sommer, Stavros Halkias, Leo Woodall, Antonio Banderas, Michael Jibrin, Caroline Portu, Monica Raymund, Ava Davey-Bissett
YOUR REVIEWERS
Christopher Lawrence Cox (Founder, Da Boss, Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, Deliberations of Doom)
Born in the wilds of northern Virginia, Chris managed to put all of his survival skills to use and barely escaped with his life to Austin Texas in 1992 where ever since he’s dabbled in everything from plumber’s assistant to sandwich maker, from band to bar and theater management. An opportunity to see theatrical release films for free by becoming a critic on a local public access show called “The Reel Deal” turned into a full-time job when Chris and his friends decided to take it to the internet. They built the site Spill.com, adding multiple podcasts and animated features, to no small amount of success. During this time, a fortuitous friendship sprung up between Chris and young Brian Salisbury, who was also a local film critic, and they merged their forces of will, and their laundry list of ideas for shows, to eventually build this community of critics. While Brian eventually followed his heart to a new family, Chris continues on with a cast of colorful folks from all over the country (and a few others).
Wright Sulek (The Other Boss, Trash in the Can, Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, One Man’s Trash, Screener Squad)
Wright hails from the northern suburbs of Dallas, Texas. His passion for filmmaking brought him to Austin to study and make movies. Since then he’s had his hand in acting, writing, and directing his own short films with numerous like-minded film geeks he’s met along his journey. His newest interest has brought him into the podcasting world. He co-hosted a few different movie related podcasts such as ‘And Now This’ and ‘The Match Cut’. He currently co-hosts with longtime friend, Eric Samaniego, where they talk shop about the grimiest, trashiest, lost gems of movies on their show, ‘Trash in the Can’. Wright also guests and hosts reviews on Screener Squad and Highly Suspect Reviews as well as co-hosts Digital Noise with Chris Cox. As of 2024, Wright has now been inducted into the Austin Film Critics Association as well as co-owns the One of Us network with Chris Cox.
Mike J. McAllister (Screener Squad, Staff Writer, Head Video Editor)
Mike J. McAllister is an award-winning creative jack of all trades, and is pretty competent with most of them. He is a writer, director, animator, video editor, and motion graphics artist. He has tried his hand at nearly every form of artistic expression at least once. He was born and raised in Western Pennsylvania where he fell in love with film, writing and special effects at an early age. His obsession with film would lead him to being locally known as a “human IMDb” and being on a first-name basis with every video store clerk in town. He would study film in Pittsburgh before taking his talents to Austin. Not letting something like Tourettes get in his way, he has produced a handful of animated short films that have won awards from film festivals all over the globe. He has also written several yet-to-be-produced screenplays and TV pilots, with some of them being recognized in screenwriting competitions. He has even created motion graphics and animations for several clients, from movie theaters to Twitch streamers. When not creating or watching films, he enjoys MST3K, classic video games and buying vinyl records. He loves dogs, dropping obscure pop culture trivia and watching travel videos. He currently resides in Austin Texas and can be followed on the Instamagrams at @ohheyitsmikejm. His body of work can be found at his homepage or you can take a gander at his somewhat-impressive IMDb listing here.
Eric Samaniego (Trash in the Can, Heart/Felt, Make a Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews)
Eric Samaniego is a multi-award show watching, sometimes comedian, sometimes writer who began life as a Muppet and 1930s screwball comedy obsessed goon and still carries a torch for all things felt, funny, and a little bit unhinged. With a passion for genre films, poor taste, and whiskey, he co-hosts Trash in the Can, a podcast that digs through cinema’s dustbin in search of the best worst movies alongside longtime co-conspirator Wright Sulek. Eric and Wright also bring their love of cinematic oddities to the big screen with One Man’s Trash, a monthly live screening series at Violet Crown Cinema in Austin, Texas, spotlighting cult classics, forgotten flops, and anything proudly wearing the label “so bad it’s good.” He also hosted Heart/Felt, a limited podcast series celebrating the 70th anniversary of The Muppets and the enduring legacy of Jim Henson. He has a new limited series on One of Us that explores the films and life of comedy legend Mel Brooks called Make a Noise. When not podcasting, Eric serves as an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who was the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797.
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