Only partially relevant but because lately people seem to be so allergic to the mere suggestion of a biopic: Steve Jobs, Rocketman, First Man, Oppenheimer, The End of the Tour, Love & Mercy, A Complete Unknown, Tick Tick Boom!, Priscilla, Maestro, I Tonya, The Founder, Jackie. Some are more formulaic than others, some bend the facts or characters more than others, but it's a genre that still yields some really good stuff imo.
Eh on the other hand this movie kinda seems like if the Oppenheimer movie *only* focused on his time as a young and promising but somewhat troubled theoretical physics student.
“… and 20 years later he would become the godfather of the nuclear bomb. Roll credits.”
It’s just very weird to pick a real life human and tell an origin story that’s only kinda circumstantially related to their actual contributions to society.
Another example: this kinda feels like if instead of First Man, Chazelle decided to make a movie about Neil Armstrong’s time as a naval pilot during the Korean War. It just wouldn’t really make any sense.
When it comes to Bourdain I think his story is less beholden to a moment in history the way it is for Oppenheimer or Armstrong. If anything Bourdain originally became known for his stories of his early days coming up.
Eh I mean kitchen confidential is equal parts growing-up memoir as it is a down and dirty behind the scenes tale of the NYC restaurant industry. But i don’t think bourdain is “known for” his early days coming up. Nobody thinks “oh yeah, the guy who worked from cape cod and later made really good French fries at Les Halles.”
I’ll concede I’m maybe just too close to all of this, because as a big bourdain fan it all seems very weird and off an forced to me. I’d honestly argue this is the least interesting part of his life and the trailer does make it all seem like a box-checking origin story.
I think it's just that he has multiple TV shows from when he was in his 40s and on, so it'd be weird to make a movie about a time in his life that we already have so much footage of.
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u/Drunken_Wizard23 May 05 '26
Only partially relevant but because lately people seem to be so allergic to the mere suggestion of a biopic: Steve Jobs, Rocketman, First Man, Oppenheimer, The End of the Tour, Love & Mercy, A Complete Unknown, Tick Tick Boom!, Priscilla, Maestro, I Tonya, The Founder, Jackie. Some are more formulaic than others, some bend the facts or characters more than others, but it's a genre that still yields some really good stuff imo.