A documentary about Anthony Bourdain and his career as a chef, writer and host, revered and renowned for his authentic approach to food, culture, and travel.
Everybody has a story about Anthony Bourdain, except me. For years, friends and family recommended I watch “Parts Unkown” but my disdain for cooking shows prevented me from ever watching. By the time he took his own life my own love of travel flourished and “Parts Unkown” would’ve been the next item in my queue. Alas, Anthony Bourdain’s legendary status as equal parts celebrity, TV fixture, and cook, were the only things I remembered him by so when this documentary came along I felt so curious to learn more. Coming in with a blank slate made everything feel like a singular narrative. “Roadrunner” hit some delirious highs, but trolls a few deep chasms with some open gaps that don’t get near as much investigation as they deserve. “Roadrunner” feels moving by the very end, but seems afraid to dig into Anthony Bourdain’s darker history with addiction in a concrete sense but it honors his inquisitive spirit.
Anthony Bourdain, world-renowned chef/media personality started off simple. The journey that would ultimately take him to his own suicide never starts with that goal in mind. Instead, we watch him drift year by year and project by project into the personality we finally saw at the end of his life. His TV shows and quasi-news programs helped archive his life heavily and the film draws from much of that archival footage. This makes telling his story easier than a simple Netflix crime drama.
The archival footage of Anthony Bourdain starts back in 1999 when he’s just on the precipice of fame. Almost all of the footage used in the early parts of the film are home recordings. The shaky handheld camerawork goes on for well over an hour and can really wear audiences down. It has the same sort of manic energy Bourdain projected into the world. Interviews provide voiceover more than an actual respite from Anthony’s chaotic home footage.
Anthony’s narrative comes framed out of his godlike status around the world. Everybody knew who he was. Still, his actual personality comes to life as we learn about where he started. By kicking a heroin addiction habit, Anthony comes to work in the kitchen at Les Halles in New York. First, he releases a book, then he starts a TV show, then his show spirals into an impressive feast of cultural representation and literal food.
Going in blind I don’t see Anthony as much of a chef. The movie rarely touches on his own cooking. It centers around his media work. The peek behind the curtain reveals a deeply sensitive man who thought deeply about his impact. Even in the early days of his program, Anthony Bourdain showed a sensitivity, gained from travel, to his show. He refused to air footage filmed during Lebanon’s brief war with Israel. Producers and directors he worked with talk about how he bent the segments to his will so that he could genuinely listen to others share their stories.
It’s never clearly said but Anthony Bourdain looks like a total asshole when described by his producing team. He rewrote voiceovers or eschewed them entirely. He disrupted segments and yelled at camera crews. He pushed back on directors and clearly didn’t appreciate anyone catering to him. He respected people who pushed back on him. As a TV personality he comes off as difficult, but the film takes pains to show he did it for the best possible product. Eventually, this asshole behavior grates on everyone around him and people needed breaks. As if he could sense it he was never home extremely long.
The film works overtime to round out the character of Anthony Bourdain, but they skim over his history with drug abuse. Instead of delving into his drug habits, they discuss his addictive behavior. After an hour and some change of learning about his media projects we finally get around to this addictive behavior. Producers describe his addiction transferring to all sorts of projects: jiu-jitsu being one of them. David Choe explicitly tells Anthony Bourdain, at one point, how no heroin addict goes perfectly cold turkey. Anthony never learned to quit being an addict, he just focused his addiction on plenty of other things.
In fact, his addiction overwhelmed him in the end as his relationship with Asia Argento appears questionable. His passion for her turned into an obsession in many ways, potentially alienating Argento. Her passionate plea for justice after her rape inspires Anthony to go deep into the #MeToo movement, almost too deep as he alienates friends and producers who might even remotely have offended women. Argento does not give an interview for the film, whether by the director’s choice or by her choice is unclear.
The film works so hard to demonstrate who Anthony Bourdain was. They interview his longtime agent, creative partners, second wife, close friends. While trying to break him down into a more complicated human, they also end up deifying him in a way. The film acknowledges that when Choe describes the ending they have planned for their movie, Bourdain walking alone on a beach, and says Anthony would hate it. Too late, but his iconoclastic desires never fully get represented. The respectful distance used to approach this subject concedes ground to Anthony’s incredible force-of-nature personality at the very end. We understand who he is, but he remains a large presence in everyone’s lives. His dark musings and manic work ethic normalize him, but also present him as a legend to everyone around. I’d recommend this film to anyone already familiar with Bourdain’s work. It’s more tragic than you’d expect, but it raises some interesting questions.
In Theaters Friday, July 16th
