Updated

Updated · Deadline · Aug 7

A24 Opens Anthony Bourdain Drama 'Tony' in 6 Theaters as 94% RT Reviews Fuel Expansion

Updated

Updated · Deadline · Aug 7

A24 Opens Anthony Bourdain Drama 'Tony' in 6 Theaters as 94% RT Reviews Fuel Expansion

Q: What secret meaning does Eric Ripert's surprise cameo hold for the late culinary icon's legacy in Tony?

Eric Ripert’s cameo is meant as a symbolic blessing on Anthony Bourdain’s origin story. Director Matt Johnson said Ripert functions as an “endorsement into adulthood” for the young Bourdain in *Tony*—a way of having one of the most important real people in Bourdain’s later life effectively recognize and “accept” this earlier, still-forming version of him. That meaning is deeper because Ripert was not part of Bourdain’s Provincetown youth in real life; their friendship came much later, when Bourdain was already established. By placing Ripert in the film’s closing stretch, reportedly in a scene tied to Bourdain’s decision to pursue culinary school, the movie turns Ripert into a bridge between the uncertain teenager onscreen and the chef-writer the world would eventually know. For Bourdain’s legacy, the cameo suggests continuity rather than mythmaking. It implies that the vulnerable, bluffing young man in the film is still recognizably the person who would later earn Ripert’s respect and deep friendship. In that sense, the surprise appearance is less fan service than a seal of emotional authenticity: a gesture from one of Bourdain’s closest real-life peers that this flawed, searching “Tony” belongs within the larger memory of Anthony Bourdain.

3 articles · Updated · Deadline · Aug 7

Six theaters in New York and Los Angeles began showing A24’s Tony on Friday, with the Anthony Bourdain origin story set to expand to about 25 locations next week.
Dominic Sessa plays a teenage Bourdain during a transformative Provincetown summer working at a seafood restaurant, the period the film frames as the start of his path to chef, author and TV host.
A 94% Rotten Tomatoes score, backing from the Bourdain estate and early support from restaurant workers and food-industry figures are helping position the indie for strong niche turnout.
The rollout leads a crowded specialty box-office weekend that also includes Mubi’s Camp Miasma on 5 screens before a 50-plus-screen expansion, Cookie Queens on 446 screens and CatVideoFest on 330-plus.