Anthony Bourdain | A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies.

In July 2021, the documentary film “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” was released and was an impressive film with actual film footage about the later life and suicide of Anthony Bourdain, who passed in June 2018 at 61. It was suggested during many of the later scenes that Bourdain might have killed himself over the Italian actress and filmmaker, Asia Argento, after they broke up a year earlier and she was with another man, although this reason for his suicide has never been verified. Perhaps another reason could have been the exhausting demands of his TV show, “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown”, in which Bourdain travelled the world non-stop for years, visiting some of the world’s poorest countries.

The new movie “Tony” is about Bourdain’s (Dominic Sessa) extremely unlikely start at 18. He wanted to be a writer and applied for a writers’ fellowship at Vassar College, which he did not get. What followed was Bourdain falling into a life-threatening depression and getting a desperate job as a dishwasher at a run-down restaurant in Provincetown, Massachusetts, so he could sleep on a hammock on the restaurant owner’s (Antonio Banderas) porch. This one unlikely event, which was caused by a series of insane circumstances in the life of a homeless, depressed, and desperate young man, led to Bourdain becoming one of the most well-known chefs in the world. Bourdain also wrote the book “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly”, which sold millions of copies.

This story also has a sub-story about a love interest with Bourdain moving to Provincetown to follow Nancy (Emilia Jones), who he later discovers has a boyfriend. Emilia Jones was the star of the outstanding movie CODA, which won the Academy Award in 2022. There are numerous conflicts and fights mainly stemming from another co-worker, Sal (Leo Woodall), and his drinking and drug use.

The best part of this movie is the scenes where Bourdain slowly starts to appreciate the art that comes with being a great chef with the help of the owner of the restaurant, who becomes his mentor. Eventually, Tony Bourdain gives up his ambitions of becoming a writer to become a great chef, later changing his first name to Anthony.

Tony is a very good biographical movie about life, and how directions can change, based on the most unlikely circumstances. Tony is getting very high 95% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, with my rating at 90% and a solid recommendation.

On June 8, 2018 Anthony Bourdain, a famous chef, author and star of his own TV series took his own life in a Hotel room in Paris France, by hanging. The new documentary “Roadrunner” does an outstanding job showing how someone as successful and rich as Bourdain could go from such highs to lows low enough to take his own life.

One of the phenomenon’s of success at a young age, is that once it seems like you have it all and should be happy, and you’re not, where do you go from there? Bourdain was already a famous chef and best selling author at age 30, and as he became more famous this lead to his own TV show “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” where he traveled around the world from 2013-2018 sampling different restaurants. Unfortunately for Bourdain, a show like this meant that he was on the road, 250 days a year and hardly ever saw his wife and child. This show was filmed in some of the poorest and most depressing parts of the world including the Congo and even Vietnam. Over time, a life like this would take a huge toll on anyone – and just for a TV show? For Bourdain, was all of this ever worth it?

I wondered often during this film that if Bourdain’s show was all about food in the United States, then his life could have been so much easier, and much less depressing. However, Bourdain’s suicide is more complicated than any one explanation. As this 2 hour documentary unfolds, a relationship with actress Asia Argento – one of Harvey Weinstein’s many accusers seems like it could be a major cause of Bourdain’s suicide near the end of his life.

In my opinion, Bourdain’s suicide was ultimately caused by the huge lows of his depression, followed by a manic high when in love with Argento, followed by another extreme low, that he just could not recover from. It also could just come down to Bourdain himself, who was so fortunate in his career, never believing he was worthy of such extraordinary fame and wealth. The world will never know the real reasons why Bourdain took his own life, because he did not leave a note.

The amazing thing about this documentary is the amount of film that was produced during Bourdain’s life, so much of what happened flowed more like a movie than a documentary.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings are a very high 95% for Roadrunner and I highly recommend this documentary.