Review
All right, so I watched this film on a solo date, which was great. After some busy weeks and some challenging times, taking a moment for myself was definitely needed.
Unfortunately, I tried to use my Regal points to get a free popcorn, or just something with these damn points… But it was just a nightmare. I hadn’t eaten dinner, so I was a bit cranky. I wanted like tenders, popcorn, candy, and a drink. But my points only got me single items. When I finally got up to the front of the line, I tried using my points on all the items, but I was pushed towards getting combos - but my points were for like small popcorns, yet the combos only came with medium popcorns… “Can I use my free drink with a combo?” and the lady (very nice, but def got aggravated with me) was like, “Sure! It'll just reduce by the line.” But that wasn’t the case. Plus all the combos came with like a large Pepsi… but I didn’t want a large Pepsi cause I don’t need that much liquid wasted on me… But that wasn’t possible… Then she got frustrated with me. By the end of the ordeal, I didn't even get to order chicken tenders or whatever, so I had no real dinner. Ironic while heading into a movie about a famous chef.
Anyway… On to the movie.
Overall, it was interesting. I wouldn't say it was like the best film. I don't think it's trying to be and it's not a “biopic” biopic. It's not a biopic. To me, it's capturing the coming-of-age story of Anthony Bourdain when he's like 19 years old so like it doesn't go into anything later in life, you just see him take the step towards taking cooking seriously. Which turns into his career, which turns into his commentary, and then plays a role int the origin for the book, Kitchen Confidential, all about kitchen life, etc.
Yet this whole film is about him being like a 19-year-old wannabe writer and his journey in growing up – so you can kind of see those seeds even though he’s ‘unsuccessful’ with that for another 20 years in a sense.
So I thought that was ok. Good in many ways. It's slow it's slow burn, then he gets into a kitchen at this small little restaurant close to the ocean in Provincetown. It’s somewhat of a love story, and you get to see all his vices play out, you know – chasing after women, drinking, smoking, eventually some drug use. Seems like it’s the introduction to drugs maybe he didn't do really before, but now he's being influenced by this new community and set of peers. All of this aids in the story picking up steam and momentum, but then it does flatline every now and then.
But like, maybe that's the right thing for this story. Isn’t that life anyways? Beyond entertainment, life’s moments are fleeting. And especially back then, boredom or moments of relatively nothing happening was much more common. I don't know, I didn't ever meet Anthony Bourdain. Who am I to critique this story and presentation?
I spent time with him as most people of the world did; watching him on TV. Some of his closest people are saying that how he is portrayed in this film is how he was in life. A bit more Stoic, very introspective, but also lashed with blatant arrogance and great confidence without having much at this time (I can feel similar to that in ways). So you get to see this play out, but it also means that the film is kind of slow.
The other characters around him are entertaining. One of my favorites being Antonio Banderas, which is I feel like he's awesome in everything (Desperado FTW). Stavros is I this - like what? There's some good supporting characters for sure, but this also makes it feel kind of like a teenage summer love story. Which is fine - of course that’s a part of him and his life. It’s a part of all our lives. I guess I also struggled with now knowing what's true or not. I’m unsure of what was hyperbolized for the sake of this movie versus what actually transpired. Which in turn changes my feelings, because some of it is super motivating and/or moving. There's some crazy stuff in this film. There's some dramatic things that happened to both him and the other characters in the film (trying to avoid spoilers) and I'm left feeling like, “Did this actually happen?!” I don't know… And then I tried looking up on IMDb, but unfortunately right now there's not enough written about this film, so I guess I gotta go research elsewhere…
I will say there are times I genuinely laughed during the film. There were multiple audible moments of “Oh shit… Oh damn… Oh fuck!” as the story played out.
By the end, I did feel this sense of warmth wash over me as I sat in the theater while he takes this big step towards becoming the man the world knew later in life. Seeing young Tony shift to become Anthony Bourdain was very cool to experience.
The film definitely has the A24 color and storytelling stamp on it (which I am a fan of, obviously), but perhaps I'm left wanting more because I was expecting more cooking to take place (you know what that say about assuming…). And just when it starts to get into some real cooking experiences the view may expect, some dramatic af things take place (also left me wondering if this really happen, cause DAYUM).
Overall - if you’re a fan, you’ve gotta watch it.