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This week, Washington Post food reporter Tim Carman joins Sophie and Rudi to discuss “Tony,” A24’s loose adaptation of Anthony Bourdain’s breakout 2000 memoir “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.”
The film, directed and co-written by Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson (“Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie”), stars Dominic Sessa (“The Holdovers”) as a young Bourdain — before he became the beloved writer, chef and TV host. Antonio Banderas, comedian Stavros Halikias, Emilia Jones (“Coda”) and Leo Woodall (“The White Lotus”) co-star in the coming-of-age story. “Tony” is based on about 50 pages of “Kitchen Confidential” (along with an episode of Bourdain’s CNN series “Parts Unknown”) and depicts a 1975 summer Bourdain spent working in a kitchen as a dishwasher while living in Provincetown, Mass.
Before getting into the film, Sophie and Rudi discuss meeting up in New York City (00:01:25) and Rudi shares some cinematic experiences from his trip, including a screening of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s new adaptation of Honobu Yonezawa’s 2021 novel “The Samurai and the Prisoner” (00:05:21).
Then Sophie and Rudi detail their history with Bourdain (00:07:41) and Provincetown before Sophie shares some context on “Kitchen Confidential” (00:14:37) and Rudi gets into the development of the film, including how Johnson’s 2023 film “Blackberry” led to “Tony” (00:17:57).
They then discuss the film at length, starting with how the film serves as origin story for how Tony became Anthony Bourdain (00:22:48) before detailing the major plot points (00:30:11), the voyeuristic cinematography (00:43:48) and Jay McCarrol’s score (00:45:19).
Washington Post food reporter Tim Carman, who appeared in an episode of “No Reservations” in 2009 and knew Bourdain professionally, then joins the show to discuss a recent article he wrote about the film (00:50:34). Tim shares what the film misses about Bourdain’s life and legacy (00:53:34) and what he thinks of people mythologizing Bourdain in the years since his death in 2018 (01:07:37). Finally, Tim shares a recommendation for another chef’s tale he’d like to see get adapted for the screen (01:09:55).
Next week, we’re discussing Ridley Scott’s new adaptation of Peter Heller’s 2012 novel “The Dog Stars,” which stars Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, and Guy Pearce.
It Was A Book First is the podcast about new book-to-screen adaptations. Subscribe now to get new episodes delivered weekly on Wednesdays.
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Hosts and producers: Sophie Vershbow and Rudi Greenberg
Guest: Tim Carman
Editing: Rudi Greenberg
Social media: Sophie Vershbow
Music: Cliff Blum and John Connelly; music production: Kevin Pons
Logo: Trisha Louise Prieto
Website: Kevin Pfab
