Matt Johnson

In Tony (2026), the kitchen job takes up the space another film might reserve for the milestones of Anthony Bourdain's life. Johnson is right to keep it there: the work is funny, and Dominic Sessa makes the young man's confidence and limited usefulness worth watching. We warmed to the kitchen scenes because they give this would-be writer something to do besides have opinions. The modest scope suits Johnson, who allows his young hero to be irritating without making irritation the only thing about him. The familiar growing-up story is less rewarding.

His feature debut, The Dirties (2013), established a mockumentary approach, followed by the guerrilla location filming of Operation Avalanche (2016). Handheld camerawork, improvisation and hidden cameras in public spaces are recurring tools, well suited to the manic outsiders he often plays as fictionalised versions of himself. They make overconfidence something we can watch being tested rather than simply hear about. His collaborators include cinematographer Jared Raab and Jay McCarrol, who has worked with him as a writer, performer and composer. McCarrol also co-created the web series Nirvana the Band the Show (2007–2009) with Johnson.

The move to BlackBerry (2023), dramatising the rise and fall of Research In Motion, widened the subject beyond those self-portraits. The 2025 film adaptation of his long-running series still returned him to playing Matt. Tony, his first US feature, takes him out of the cast. We would not mistake that for abandoning his interests: the young Bourdain is another man with more certainty than experience.

What needs to change is the attention paid to everyone around that man. In Tony, Johnson and fellow writers Todd Bartels, Lou Howe and Matthew Miller let the men be funny and uncertain, but Emilia Jones's Nancy has too little to do alongside them. The women chiefly matter for what they contribute to Tony's development, and the lively kitchen scenes do not make that less frustrating. We want the same curiosity about them that Johnson grants his aspiring writer. Start with Tony for Sessa and the kitchen company; allow for some thin writing outside it.