SCREENING FROM AUGUST 14th

In 1975, on failing to win a writing fellowship, 19-year-old Tony Bourdain (Dominic Sessa) flees to a small town on Cape Cod with no plan other than to chase his high school crush Nancy (Emilia Jones). With no money and no accommodation, he lucks into the kindness of a local restaurateur he knows only as Chef (Antonio Banderas). Bourdain described his younger self in his bestselling memoir Kitchen Confidential as “spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive, and thoughtless”, all of which is readily apparent, as is his charm and charisma in this enjoyable origin story from the director of Blackberry (2023).

Notes by David O’Mahony