Review: 'Roadrunner' lets Anthony Bourdain talk about life, love and food — while reminding us how his death silenced that voice
Watching director Morgan Neville’s energetic and fascinating documentary, “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain,” is a jarring reminder of what we lost when Bourdain — chef turned author, TV host and world traveler — took his life in France three summers ago.
By 2001, which is where Neville (“20 Feet from Stardom,” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”) starts the story, Bourdain was already famous. His book “Kitchen Confidential” was a best-seller that put him on every talk show from Letterman to Oprah. The heroin and cocaine abuse he wrote about in his book, which was as much confessional memoir as it was restaurant tell-all, was in his rearview. So, for the most part, was professional cooking — as he was transforming himself into a TV host, first for the Food Network (“A Cook’s Tour”), then on the Travel Channel (“No Reservations” and “The Layover”) and finally on CNN’s “Parts Unknown.”
Neville interviews several of the producers and directors of those shows, who serve up some juicy tidbits of gossip — the first being the revelation that Bourdain, who talked a good game, had not traveled much before he started as a TV host. He was also green to the tricks of making good TV, though he was a fast study, a sharp writer with an eye toward the cinematic.
The movie also features emotional interviews with some of Neville’s famous friends, including chefs Eric Ripert and David Chang, rockers Josh Homme (from Queens of the Stone Age) and Alison Mosshart (from The Kills), and artist David Choe. One of the most heartfelt interviews is with Bourdain’s second wife, Ottavia Busia, who is also the mother to Bourdain’s daughter, Ariane.
Two people are notable for not being interviewed here: Bourdain’s first wife, Nancy (they married in 1985, before he became famous, and divorced in 2005), and the Italian actress/filmmaker Asia Argento, with whom Bourdain shared a relationship for just over a year before his death.
But Neville has plenty of footage of Argento, who accompanied Bourdain on several trips for “Parts Unknown” in his last year, and infamously took over directing the Hong Kong episode. His longtime crew members dissect that incident with obvious exasperation, and there’s plenty of behind-the-scenes footage (since CNN Films is one of the film’s production companies).
The discussions regarding Argento, in the movie’s final half-hour, are the most problematic. Bourdain’s old colleagues say they saw Bourdain’s personality change when he started dating Argento — and that his overbearing eagerness to please her led him to alienate his crew members, and may have prompted some of Bourdain’s strong #MeToo advocacy, which began when Argento went public with allegations of rape against disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein.
The movie ends, as it must, with talk about Bourdain’s suicide — a sad coda that every viewer knew was coming. Neville handles it as well as one could expect, dwelling not on the act but on how his friends and colleagues have tried to make sense of it.
What makes “Roadrunner” so fascinating is the bounty of footage Neville compiles of Bourdain in motion, his mouth keeping up with his itinerary and his enthusiasm. What makes the movie infuriating is the reminder that we don’t get to hear that voice moving forward.
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‘Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain’
★★★1/2
Opens Friday, July 16, at the Century 16 (South Salt Lake), Megaplex at The District (South Jordan), Megaplex Legacy Crossing (Centerville), Megaplex Thanksgiving Point (Lehi) and Megaplex at the Junction (Ogden). Rated R for language throughout. Running time: 118 minutes.`