Lisa’s TONY review raves about a biopic that defies conventional tropes and captures the moment when Anthony Bourdain found his insatiable passion.

Before I was a film critic, I was a food critic. My family was involved in those two industries, among others, but these are the two that fascinated me. I grew up with relatives telling wild tales about both restaurants and film making. Marilyn Monroe and Mahi Mahi; canapés and casting.

My early jobs involved both. My first paid gig was scooping ice cream at Baskin Robbins, which evolved into waiting tables and food prep, always asking questions about every aspect of the business and taking multiple culinary classes. It came as no surprise when a university study revealed I was a super taster, explaining that I had a higher concentration of tastebuds on my tongue than most people.

It made sense that my first film job involved working craft services on a tv show set. From there I was plucked out to be an extra, and worked on many a production after that. I spent the long hours of downtime asking below the line people what exactly they did. They enjoyed my interest and were happy to explain the intricacies of lighting, sound, costuming, makeup—even transportation.

I also studied different aspects of film in school, along with journalism, which taught me how to write about movies and food in what I hope is a provocative way.

So to say that Tony, a film that depicts the summer of 1975 when American culinary king Anthony Bourdain discovered his passion, is my kind of movie, is an understatement. I’m not sure I can really be objective about a project that masterfully merges two of the subjects I love most.

Tony review — not what you’d expect

Tony, adroitly directed, produced and co-written by Matt Johnson, is not the formulaic biopic you may have expected. Nor is it a gushing goulash that covers up all the subject’s faults with cheese. In fact, Dominic Sessa’s Tony Bourdain at 19 is an entitled, lying, lazy jerk — the kind that never met a fabrication he didn’t like, as long as it served his purpose.

His ugly side is right there for all to see in black and white at the beginning of the film, in an epigraph, written by Bourdain in latter days when he describes himself as “a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, badly in need of a good ass-kicking.”

We meet him when he was enrolled at Vassar. What he really wanted was to become a writer, according to this version of his coming of age story, but fate, and perhaps lack of direction and dedication, had other plans for him. When he didn’t get the summer writing fellowship he applied for, he impetuously followed a fellow student he was attracted to Cape Cod, where he found himself washing dishes at a popular seafood restaurant called The Lobster Pot.

A never been better Antonio Banderas plays the chef who opened Bourdain’s eyes to the rapturous virtues not only of carefully prepared cuisine, but also of hard work and integrity. Leo Woodall plays the chilling “Sin Eater,” a fellow kitchen hand and harbinger of ultimately devastating things to come for Bourdain.

Yet as serious as this all sounds, there is laughter, there is warmth, there is celebration and revelation. There is a score that will take you right back to your own summer of ’75 — if you weren’t around yet, ask your parents about theirs.

And the period wardrobing! It fully confirms my long held assertion that skinny, pasty white guys (Banderas’s chef calls Tony “Flaco”) should never wear tank tops. Those were the days!

I was fortunate enough to see the film at a preview screening full of chefs and other restaurant workers, a promotion A24 cleverly thought up. Those of us in the culinary know couldn’t help but gasp when Tony went to cavalierly shuck his first oyster — we knew what was coming. And when the kitchen fire started? We couldn’t bare to watch.

To see the sincere reactions of the very professionals the film was lovingly paying tribute to was a thrill indeed, and testimony to the fact that Tony nailed it.

This may be a relatively small film from a production standpoint, but it’s huge in heartfelt storytelling and craft. Without the usual artifices of a zillion dollar budget, stunt casting, gratuitous violence or flashy special effects, it’s a quiet the treasure.

Rated R

1 Hour 46 Minutes

If this Tony review encourages you to make reservations at your nearest cineplex, find times and tickets at Fandango.com.

Lisa’s TONY review raves about a biopic that defies conventional tropes and captures the moment when Anthony Bourdain found his insatiable passion.