Film Review: TONY (2026): Dominic Sessa Carries an Uneven, Yet Compelling Biopic of Sorts

Tony Review

Tony (2026) Film Review, a movie directed by Matt Johnson, written by Todd Bartels, Lou Howe and Matt Johnson and starring Dominic Sessa, Antonio Banderas, Emilia Jones, Leo Woodall, Stavros Halkias, Michael Jibrin, Monica Raymund, Rich Sommer, Dagmara Dominczyk, Liam Fitch, Caroline Portu, Joe Burns, Henry Lynch, Derek K. Moore and Zele Avradopoulos.

Filmmaker Matt Johnson’s new film, Tony, takes a few minutes to warm up to. In the film, Dominic Sessa portrays Anthony Bourdain, one of the most celebrated chefs of his time, in his early years. Sessa is a young actor and he plays Bourdain at a point in his life in which the chef (who became a well-received author) was just beginning to earn his stripes and prepare for culinary school (he attended CIA, The Culinary Institute of America). Tony moves slowly and is a standard partial biopic from an overall basic perspective. There are three solid lead turns, but there is a problem with the way the characters they play develop over the course of the average length film. Sessa makes the film noteworthy with his intriguing work.

If one were to look at videos of Bourdain, it’s clear to see that Sessa got his facial expressions and mannerisms down to a science with his accomplished work in the new movie. The basic problem with Tony is its love story. Playing the role of the woman who Anthony (Tony) took a liking to, Nancy, is Emilia Jones. Unfortunately, for the storyline, Jones is only moderately successful in her role and she recalls talents such as Debra Winger or Zooey Deschanel through her appearance, but the performance isn’t as strong as the ones typically given by those two actresses.

Early on, Sessa’s Tony meets up with Nancy at a bar. She is with an entourage, including her female cousin. Tony tells Nancy he has been accepted to a school to work on his writing and he also tells his parents he has a novel that’s about to be worked on in the said institution of higher learning. One problem, though: Tony gets a phone call at his house telling him he’s been rejected from that program he thought he would get into.

Nancy is on her way to Provincetown, and Tony soon finds himself getting into a fight when he secretly follows her there. After kind of laying a hand on a bartender, Tony meets two men who will ultimately become his friends, played by Antonio Banderas and Leo Woodall.

Fortunately, Banderas’s performance is a breath of fresh air and the actor’s chef character comes through quite efficiently thanks to the work of this actor who has exceedingly gotten better as an artist with each dramatic film role he plays. Banderas’s character takes Tony under his wing when Tony needs somewhere to stay and is forced to do dishes at Banderas’ place of work in order for Tony to pay his own way.

Most of Tony consists of interactions between the characters that aren’t really all that memorable. There is a great love story waiting to break out of the film, but Tony and Nancy were just on the brink of their relationship in the scenes of this movie, so no great love story ever gels here. Nancy thinks Tony is working at the restaurant in order to do research for a book and the movie plays out interestingly, albeit not always in a satisfying manner, true story or not.

Tony remains a compelling film despite its flaws. That’s because of the dedication Sessa brings to his part. Whether Tony has a black eye or a secret agenda or he’s just pursuing Nancy, Sessa nails the role. When he heads out on a fishing expedition one night, it’s one of the best scenes of the movie although you’ll never see it coming from some of the mundane scenes that precede it.

Though the new movie is uneven, it’s easy to figure out why it is. This is ultimately a very small fragment of Bourdain’s life which is portrayed on-screen here. It’s a biopic that only deals with what would have been 20 minutes or so of a film about his life as a whole. When the words come up at the end, we’re told of Anthony Bourdain (Tony)’s accomplishments, but the movie is an incomplete picture of how he got to become so successful. One of the college admissions reps even declares that Tony’s experience before going to culinary school was essentially just doing dishes. If you’re looking for the definitive movie about Anthony Bourdain, this is certainly not on the level of the 2021 Roadrunner documentary at all. One may want to seek out that documentary before coming to this thin portrait of the artist’s early life.

That said, Tony is an intriguing achievement nonetheless. Banderas commands attention in his supporting role and Sessa and screen veteran, Banderas, share great moments together such as in a scene where Sessa’s Tony downplays Banderas’ character’s age. Tony declares, “You’re 40?…45?” Banderas is 65 in real life although it’s not entirely clear his age in the movie. It’s certainly older than 45 which is the point of that remarkably conceived scene.

Tony is a curiosity piece that had the potential to be more, especially with its sections regarding the start of Tony’s relationship with Nancy. This film keeps us at a distance from Bourdain’s true emotions for many sequences throughout it. Still, the movie is interesting enough and that may warrant a reason for some people to want to check it out, although Roadrunner is much better and is recommended as a companion piece to this new film.

Rating: 7/10

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