Tony

Brazen Tony could talk his way into and out of almost anything except winning the love of his life. Sessa is dedicated to playing this impatient, with himself, and others, character. His hunched up body language with an almost dead-eyed stare are dominant physical features as he has repeated episodes of unpleasant encounters in this film. 

Matt Johnson is a Writer/Director, but also an actor whose previous work includes the film about the rise and spectacular fall of the pre-iphone sensation Blackberry. Johnson is a smart, small budget Indie director who knows how to use humor and satire to reveal those traits in his characters. 

Johnson co-wrote this film with Matthew Miller, Todd Bartels and Lou Howe. But he also let Sessa help rewrite the script after he was cast, to add more spice to his role, and there’s plenty. To prep for the role, Johnson had renowned cook book author and chef internet interviewer of Talking in the Walkin take Sessa to restaurants, high end and low, back in the kitchen to front of the house, from New Orleans, to New York City and many in between to get a feel for how it all works. It became an education, not only of the places and the food, but, more importantly, of the people. Sessa found out what it feels like to work to develop your own team from dishwasher to cook plus learning to shuck oysters, fast. 

As spellbinding as Sessa is as young Bourdain, it’s Antonio Banderas who owns the screen as master The Chef who runs a seaside cheap-eats fish spot in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Banderas’ Chef fascinates and inspires Tony as he assigns him tasks that open his eyes to the culinary world. Banderas plays the most layered character in the film, showing wide emotional range. He hires Tony and gives him plenty of very tough-love while taking him under his wing. He’s the bad-ass boss trying to teach a college kid with attitude what responsibility and accountability look like, starting with sleeping on a hammock with a pail of cold water in the face as his alarm clock. 

Nancy (Emilia Jones CODA) is the pretty, smart object of Tony’s desire who was his high school crush. After failing to get a writing fellowship, the depressed Vassar sophomore took his father’s cash and a ferry to Provincetown to chase after Nancy whose summer job is working in a pizza stand. She has him pegged as a blowhard, but also senses there might be someone worth getting to know under the bluster. She’s the nexus of Tony’s hopeful summer fling. But he’s so intense. The other cooks in The Chef’s  kitchen provide laughs exposing how green Tony is in the kitchen, providing some good comic moments. 

The role of his kitchen buddy is played by Leo Woodall who we saw in a tender role with Dustin Hoffman in Tuner. This is a much more calous character Woodall also does well as a funny, but short-fused, scary sociopath who leads Tony into the darkest moments of the story. He becomes very physical and influential as his drinking and drug buddy. Like Tony, Johnson creates him as a character you both enjoy and revile.

But a calamitous kitchen accident changes everything and is a wake up call for Tony, big time, with a surprising result. That’s when he begins to come-of-age, realizing he’s not the super accomplished kitchen whiz he imagined. Sessa’s difficult challenge was inhabiting this beloved complicated, self-destructive character with Banderas as Tony’s consummate Grill Sargent. Johnson mixed all together for Anthony Bourdain’s first course to becoming the world’s master foodie.

A24       1 Hour 46 Minutes        R