Roadrunner review: Morgan Neville’s documentary on Anthony Bourdain unpacks the loneliness of fame-Entertainment News , Firstpost
Roadrunner, a documentary about Anthony Bourdain, is a stellar profile of an American sweetheart, that is sharp, kind and unforgiving – just like its subject
Language: English
In an early moment from Morgan Neville’s Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, we learn that deep down, the chef-turned-TV host has always been a writer. Appearing in archival footage shot by photographer Dmitri Kasterine for a documentary circling the release of Kitchen Confidential (1999) that eventually never got made, Bourdain is seen unwrapping a new pack of cigarettes first thing in the morning. “Happiness is a new pack!”, he exhales while saying. Only moments earlier, Bourdain is shown waiting impatiently outside his restaurant (Les Halles, New York) for his fish order. Apparently, behind schedule, Bourdain can be heard philosophising – “It’s why chefs are drunks. We don’t understand why the world can’t run like our kitchens.”
Anthony Bourdain was a gifted man. A perfectionist constantly riddled with imposter syndrome, a punk-rock badass who could surprise you with his warmth and empathy, a ‘cool’ elder brother figure for his TV audience who could be surprisingly articulate even after drinking locals under the table. Fans imagined Bourdain’s life as a rockstar, who would travel the world, sampling local culture and sharing his honest feelings (Bourdain ferociously protected his brand as a ‘no bullshiter’). What else could *anyone* want, right? And yet in 2018, Bourdain was found dead in his hotel room in France, a case of apparent suicide.
In Roadrunner, Neville sits down with Bourdain’s romantic partner, close friends, colleagues, bosses, employees, who help decode Anthony Bourdain’s legend. And somewhere along the way, also touch upon the many contradictions of Anthony Bourdain – the man. It’s a stellar profile of an American sweetheart, that is sharp, kind and unforgiving – just like its subject.
We go through Bourdain’s life chronologically, starting from his years as an author slowly morphing into an awkward TV host. Bourdain has, time and again, spoken about this period in his life, where he was ‘ready’ for the success that came his way at the age of 43. Having survived a bout of heroin addiction in the late ‘80s, Bourdain had seemingly turned a corner by the early 2000s where he was being pulled in a million directions. It’s easy to lose your way in a world where you wake up one morning and see a newspaper clipping that says Brad Pitt might be playing you in a movie, with David Fincher directing it. However, this part of his life wasn’t without casualty. His first marriage with his partner of two decades, Nancy Putkoski, ended in 2005. Only a year later, he married Ottavia Busia, with whom he would raise daughter Ariane.
A still from Roadrunner
From hereon, Bourdain’s life had fewer (external) antagonists. The show was loved, and he along with his producers (Chris Collins and Lydia Tenaglia) were given a free rein – including some really tricky shoots in Libya, Lebanon and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bourdain unleashed his inner film buff, as they manifested his dreams of visiting the farthest lands he’d read about in books/comics, or seen in films. Going around the world, it obviously had to change/move/break him as a person, something Collins and Tenaglia reckon in one scene. Especially in an episode set in Lebanon, where the crew found itself caught in a real-life conflict. Bourdain re-examines his belief that by breaking bread with the ‘other’, he could find a way to repair the world, only to be rendered powerless in the end. “Look at us, we’re next to a pool getting a tan, watching a war. If there’s a metaphor, this is probably it,” he says unsparingly.
Neville’s film glides like a perfectly calm stream, without a single ripple showing on the surface. Especially, how it cuts from in-person interviews to archival footage of Bourdain’s shows to the B-rolls, to his umpteen interviews with news networks. There’s a brilliant transition that goes from a bloody river in Congo, where Bourdain has just killed a wild pig with a spear, to a red carpet with pointed heels (presumably at a glamorous awards night on the West coast).
With biographical documentaries, it’s necessary to spend some time on why a person’s life is worth discussing. Neville did it earlier with Won’t You Be My Neighbour? (2018) where he plunged into the legacy of Mr Rogers – which also became a subject for a 2020 film starring Tom Hanks and Matthew Rhys. In Roadrunner, he seems to be leaning on the humanity and the breathlessness of Tony Bourdain’s life, who almost seems to be constantly piecing his life together as if it were a puzzle that he had to make sense of. He thinks global recognition, fulfilling his passion, making a lot of money would fill the void in his heart. Only to be hit by the tragic realisation: it won’t.
After his separation with wife Ottavia Busia, while Bourdain was dating actor/director Asia Argento, there’s a chilling scene where he talks about quitting the show. Meeting Collins and Tenaglia in a cafe, he says something to the effect of how this relationship is all he has left, and he can’t let work weigh down on this too. Both Collins and Tenaglia support his decision, much to Bourdain’s surprise, rendering him motionless at the table. After quitting heroin, Bourdain inadvertently turned his focus to his work. That was his addiction now.
World renowned chef David Chang, who was one of Bourdain’s confidantes, recounts a day when Bourdain told him he would never be a ‘good father’. Chang breaks down, but not before defending his friend’s actions. “Of course, he was projecting!”, he says to Neville, stating he was probably deflecting the bitterness of his second divorce, and the realisation that he wouldn’t be there for Ariane like he had imagined. Artist David Choe, also a close friend of Bourdain, reveals how he got a searing email from him during his separation with Busia. “We’re both successful… but are you happy?” – he asks while signing off on the email.
Choe, dealing with various forms of addictions himself, probably related to Bourdain’s impulses even more closely. Chang reveals how Bourdain’s favourite song was ‘Anemone’ (by The Brian Jonestown Massacre), which he describes as ‘heroin music’. Bourdain always had a dark sense of humour, something that invites even more dissection after his death. Was he asking for help? Did we all ignore his cries for help by laughing at his jokes? Did we do enough for the man?
On the surface, Neville’s films could be mistaken for a hagiography, picking up on Bourdain’s life only after the world discovers him in the aftermath of his bestselling debut as a writer. It stays respectful of Bourdain’s legacy, never dwelling too long on his mercurial nature while shooting his TV shows, and yet the film starts to resemble an open wound in its final 15 mins. It talks about his (almost reckless) speed of living, the steady decline in his mental health that prompted him to see a therapist in what would be his final months. Nearly everyone wells up not because they ‘miss him’, but out of helplessness of not reaching out to someone they deeply loved, even when he was extremely unlikeable.
“He stopped coming by less and less…” says wife Ottavia Busia about his final few months, prompting herself to think if she could have done more to ask him how he was doing. “I wish I had said more to him during that moment,” says director Michael Steed after breaking the news to him that a tabloid had photographed his then-partner Asia Argento with another man. It is suggested that Bourdain and Argento had broken up by then in the manner he reacts to the news, but he’s nonetheless upset about it. “I don’t speak about it,” says Bourdain’s good friend and renowned chef/writer/TV host Eric Ripert while taking a sip of water, who reportedly found Bourdain in his hotel room.
These final 15 mins aren’t just reserved for teary goodbyes, but a lot of things are said with spite and anger. There’s almost a seething betrayal in the eyes of his long-time collaborators, his close friends — “how could he have done something so selfish, what are we supposed to do now?” And yet, Neville’s film insists that his final act cannot be pinned as the legacy of a man, who meant so much more to everyone around him. Everyone is trying to attribute meaning to his last Instagram post, what he possibly meant by a particular choice of music. Was it rage? Was it helplessness? What were his final thoughts?
Neville’s film is mature enough to know that there is no closure. Being the control freak that he was, who would entirely rewrite the voice-overs for his TV shows because it was something he considered an extension of his own authorial voice, maybe it’s fitting that Bourdain would also exit the stage on his own terms. And when one senses that the film is giving him a respectful send-off, Bourdain’s friends remind Neville how much he would have hated a sentimental end. Such authentic friends, he must have surely lived a life worth celebrating.
Roadrunner is now available on BookMyShow Stream
Tatsam Mukherjee has been working as a film journalist since 2016. He is based out of Delhi NCR.
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