On June 8, 2018, chef/television personality and all-around humanitarian took his own life. The CNN star of Parts Unknown and a series of other television programs over the years is the subject of the most stunning of documentaries by filmmaker Morgan Neville.
The documentarian has been brilliantly busy of late, what with his work on the Oscar-winning 20 Feet from Stardom and the should have been nominated doc Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Now, he turns his camera on a subject matter that could have not been more in the public eye, yet there were very few that keenly know what it was that made Bourdain tick. They’re all here representing their friend, ex-husband, father of their daughter, fellow cooks, artists, musicians, and a cornucopia of folks who have a crater-sized hole in their life since that fateful day.
Neville starts his Bourdain journey at the beginning and it is incredible that there is so much video of the young man as he is making his way through New York City as a line cook and eventually a chef. It wasn’t until he penned the blockbuster book Kitchen Confidential that the world started to take notice of this man who not only cooked like a man possessed with a God-given gift, but he was also incredibly appealing to the media masses and the people that comprise the planet at large.
He was a gifted writer and many of his friends and colleagues speak to the wonderful emails that he would send that are littered with visual prose that takes the reader away to a land that is completely and utterly populated by one—Anthony Bourdain. It is that loquaciousness that comes through as he “narrates” his own stories with excerpts from his many television appearances and his shows, including his most popular one: Parts Unknown on CNN (who is a co-producer of the film).
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain trapses all across the globe, just like Tony, and in the process, it is crystal clear why he touched so many. We are all one, united by this planet, our love of our cultures and yes, food, is impossible to resist. It has resonated long after his death and it permeates every frame of Neville’s film.
What is so fascinating about this film as well is the vastness that was his friendship circles. He ran with all sorts of folks and made friends with the most unlikely of souls in his travels and most importantly—stayed in touch and fostered a deep relationship with a myriad of global souls.
The “talking heads” who add their two cents, from chefs to his second ex-wife and everyone in between help paint a picture of a man who knew nothing about erecting fences between people. He embraced all and that is pointedly clear by the myriad of people he touched, befriended, and adored. Every single soul that participated in this documentary sheds the most earnest of tears when thinking about the fact that he is simply gone. It’s not so much a sadness that he took his own life (which is obviously still there). It is more that this person they cherished ultimately is no longer a part of their existence… a gaping hole where something enormous once resided.
Now, Neville has come under fire of late because it has been revealed that he used AI software to get a few narrative lines out of Bourdain to fit the picture. It is how technology is heading, but it doesn’t make it right. There will be an extensive ethical conversation in documentary circles about this, but this is about reviewing the film. Whether Neville was correct in what he did is a subject for another column. But I will say one thing, it doesn’t take away from the power that is the man and how many people he touched the globe over.
As the camera follows him around his native New York City or in the farthest reaches of the planet, people are earnestly drawn to him and that is truly the greatest tragedy of his loss. It is also a message to folks who are having troubles and believe that suicide is the answer.
No matter the situation, life is a gift, and nobody—sadly and ironically—makes that clearer than Anthony Bourdain. Live life to the fullest. Taste everything, feel all and above all else, blaze a trail that is uniquely yours.
Grade: A