Tony (Matt Johnson, 2026)

[brundlefly]

Tony, an Anthony Bourdain biopic from Matt Johnson (Nirvanna: The Band - The Show - The Movie). Dominic Sessa, Antonio Banderas, Emilia Jones, Stavros Halkias.

[Lemmy Caution]

Tony, an Anthony Bourdain biopic from Matt Johnson (Nirvanna: The Band - The Show - The Movie). Dominic Sessa, Antonio Banderas, Emilia Jones, Stavros Halkias.

Is there a reason they named it Tony instead of a more specific title, say Bourdain?
Or Tony the Cook?

[TechnicolorAcid]

Tony, an Anthony Bourdain biopic from Matt Johnson (Nirvanna: The Band - The Show - The Movie). Dominic Sessa, Antonio Banderas, Emilia Jones, Stavros Halkias.

Is there a reason they named it Tony instead of a more specific title, say Bourdain?
Or Tony the Cook?

I assume it’s because the movie is going to be focused on presenting Bourdain, not as the famous cook, but as just an ordinary kid who slowly becomes shaped into Bourdain

[PfR73]

Tony, an Anthony Bourdain biopic from Matt Johnson (Nirvanna: The Band - The Show - The Movie). Dominic Sessa, Antonio Banderas, Emilia Jones, Stavros Halkias.

Is there a reason they named it Tony instead of a more specific title, say Bourdain?
Or Tony the Cook?

Spoiler

Throughout the film he insists on being called "Tony" whenever someone calls him "Anthony", until the final moments when he is having an interview to attend the Culinary Institute of America

[Mr.DarjeelingLimited]

Saw Matt Johnson’s Tony. Ended up being one of my most beloved films of the year. Falls into none of the traps that other biopics do and is really tightly written. Acting is great. Banderas is the absolute highlight.

[Finch]

I saw the director's name and went, is that Canadian Matt Johnson who did Nirvanna and Blackberry and it was! Now I have to see Tony.

[TechnicolorAcid]

Tony (Matt Johnson) is kind of like the food Bourdain makes in it, it’s essentially just a serving fast food but you can tell that it’s fast food made with so much love and passion that I just fell in love with it anyhow. Obvious points out of the way but Dominic Sessa is phenomenal, effortlessly playing Tony in a way that crosses the line between very charming and making you want someone to kick his ass, and the rest of the cast is also very good, although I am still a little tickled by the presence of Antonio Banderas in a Matt Johnson movie.

Speaking of Matt Johnson, this is undoubtedly his best directing work with some of his greatest composition in his whole career, no doubt aided by Michael Bauman’s occasionally beautiful cinematography, which is drastically different from most of Johnson’s other films but also feels a lot more appropriate for it. It’s also surprisingly personal for a biopic about another person. I read an interview with Johnson where he said that he felt like him and watching it, I did feel like Tony did have a lot of similarities and it keep of feels like Johnson is looking back on his past through Tony with both men undoubtedly having been oddly charming, youthful men in their pasts but also at points obnoxious, pretentious and often self-centered. Johnson even subtly brings up his edgelord nature with a rather shocking slur dropped by Leo Woodall’s Sal, who himself feels like what Johnson fears his life would’ve become if he kept up with the uncaring, edgelord persona he had been in his past, a childish narcissist who, intentionally or not, harms the people around him almost as much as he does himself.

And yet, despite the dark undertones of Sal, Tony often is a very light-hearted and playful movie, embracing the summertime party atmosphere of Tony’s experience in a way that made the inevitable ending where Tony has to head back home for college feel bittersweet and the film does a great job of endearing you to its characters enough that its emotional beats feel genuinely earned, which I think puts it miles ahead of a lot of “feel-good” movies like it that sort of just expect you to be moved in a way by moments that don’t feel deserved at all.

Ultimately though, I will have to say, don’t go into this expecting a BlackBerry or NTBTSTM because besides the potential link between Matt with Tony & Sal, there aren’t many other defining Matt Johnson traits (although there is one shot that reminded of the lake scene from The Dirties that’s featured in the new Zapruder Film logo) but if you’re in the mood for a wonderful little serving of warm goodness, Tony is probably going to be the film for you.

[swo17]

Matt Johnson's Tony is getting an A24 Shop-exclusive 4K UHD release