Another Tony “Review” and other thoughts
I know another Tony post, but this is a little different. So first of all, I mean, nothing is gonna beat the article that Laurie posted here. Everyone should read it and not read this. It’s the definite opinion about the subject.
But I wanted to give some of my thoughts about this. I watched a special showing on Monday, and I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about different things, and you know, I wanted to chime in.
This is gonna be a long article, so if you’re used to watching TikTok all day, this might not be a good read for you.
I’ve been a Bourdain fan for a long time. But I’m sure all of you have been fans for a long time, and everyone has their own thoughts when new stuff comes out. When I saw the trailer, I thought it looked good, but I was a little apprehensive about a movie. And the more information that I learned about it, the more I start to come around, and when I watched the movie on Monday, I really enjoyed it. After I’ve had some time to think, I think I enjoyed it even more than when I walked out of the theater. There was just something that nagged me a little bit about a story that wasn’t exactly Word for Word from the book. This is a quote from the director, Matt Johnson. I think it summarizes it perfectly.
“I never let the fact get in the way of the truth”
I’ve been watching a lot of interviews from him, reading different articles, and the more that I read, the more that I can appreciate the movie, that’s not saying that I didn’t already appreciate it. I was listening to the writers talk on a podcast and they came to the Bourdain estate. You know, before a script was even written. It was just an idea, and they said that the Bourdain estate was supportive but did not necessarily want to back it until they saw more, which is understandable; they, of course, later approved it and were very supportive. The director, Matt Johnson, shortly moved to Provincetown after everything was finalized for him to direct. He lived there for five months. The movie only shot for 25 days. He said during that time he talked to locals and he talked to someone who worked right next to Bourdain and hung out with him while he was there and was told all these different stories. I think that it’s great that they shot it there because it’s very rare for movies like that to be shot on-site at a unique location.
I think the actors’ performances were fantastic. All the characters were great. Sessa killed it and Antonio Banderas I mean, how do you sign up to be his friend? The story had so much heart and it was hopeful. I can’t wait to watch it a second time; it really transports you back to 1975 and I myself have worked in the industry, and the kitchen scenes were great.
You know, some people are not gonna be supportive of the movie. They’re not gonna see it. That’s understandable but I feel like everyone should go see it with an open mind.
I also lastly wanna touch on something that’s been bugging me that I see a lot. Besides, Bourdain would’ve hated this: it’s parasocial. And I do wanna remind you that we are on a sub Reddit called Anthony Bourdain, which people usually talk about Anthony Bourdain to some varying degrees. You might not like what they’re saying, but just ignore it, move along, unless they’re being disrespectful or something. Bourdain himself liked a lot of famous people. He imitated them in certain episodes. He had them on his show. This is a quote from an interview that he did…
When was the last time you felt like crying?
“Every time I see the movie When We Were Kings, with Muhammad Ali boxing George Foreman in Zaire. I cry like a baby from beginning to end of that film. To me, Muhammad Ali is like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson — so to see him at his peak, his youngest and most dangerous, is to see this most amazing … I cry like a baby every time I see that film.”
I know this is the Internet, but if we could just, like, lower the dickhead level, that would be great.