They say you should never meet your heroes, how you will be disappointed in who they are as opposed to who we imagine them to be.
Roadrunner starts out as a film chronicling how Anthony Bourdain became famous. Even if Bourdain were still alive, this would be a great documentary subject. Bourdain, up until his 40s, led an interesting life that virtually no one knew about.
Kitchen Confidential. Then the videos started: A Cook's Tour. No Reservations (with The Layover). Parts Unknown. Each of those shows under different umbrellas and approaches, showing a more maturing Bourdain along the way. Given that this part of his life started when he was in his 40s, his work got more mature as the shows changed. You could argue they were all food and travel shows. He didn't eat that much in the first and third shows. Parts Unknown was about, as David Chang put it, Bourdain trying to be a better person.
Morgan Neville then steers the documentary boat into the curious yet futile question: "Why did Anthony Bourdain kill himself?" Neville asks the people around Bourdain and they gave their take. Ottavia, his second wife, gives her perspective. People talk about how devoted Bourdain was to his daughter, Ariane Busia-Bourdain.
There are the theories. Bourdain wanted to slow down but didn't know how to make that move. Bourdain's second marriage crumbled. Actor/director Asia Argento stepped in. Was she the reason?
A documentary should be judged on who doesn't get interviewed. Neville made a case for not interviewing Argento. We hear about the Hong Kong episode story. The looks on people's faces change when they talk about that episode. The one person who had an intriguing story about that episode was longtime cinematographer Zach Zamboni. Zamboni was fired during the shoot over a dispute between Zamboni and Argento, who ended up directing the episode.
Neville takes us down this path knowing there won't be a nice neat bow to the story of Bourdain. His addictive personality is on display. Artist David Choe says Bourdain is the only person who gave up heroin without treatment. What made Bourdain great on TV in his food travels was the addiction for something more. Most people making TV aren't getting better. The adaptation to different levels of Bourdain were part of that addiction. Bourdain got involved with jiujitsu in part because his wife competed in the sport.
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Neville has a good reputation as a documentary filmmaker. See the Academy Award winning 20 Feet from Stardom or Best of Enemies on Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley or Won't You Be My Neighbor? about Fred Rogers.
Being curious about why someone killed themselves is worthy of a documentary. Cutting corners to get to that point is a bad sign. The use of Bourdain's voice in an e-mail through AI is a terrible move for a documentary. You don't gain anything from the shortcut. Many other things that Bourdain did say are portrayed in a manipulative fashion.
If you are a fan of Anthony Bourdain and his shows, you know Bourdain has countless mentions of death, especially his own death, on the shows. This doesn't always mean suicide will happen but this is a clue to consider.
We don't learn a lot about Bourdain in the second half of the film, except that he had flaws.
"You don't want his legacy to come off as like somebody who succumbed to this darkness. That wasn't him. Like he created something that was so important — and I want — that really needs to be like — that is the legacy of his life. Not this stupid bullshit that he did at the end." — Lydia Tenaglia, co executive producer of Zero Point Zero Production.
The flaw in Roadrunner is that the film is much more about that "stupid bullshit."
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If you want to learn something about Anthony Bourdain, watch this film until it turns dark. Otherwise, watch No Reservations (we are partial to that version) or Parts Unknown.
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Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain is available for rent. The film is scheduled to air again on CNN on Saturday at 10 pm Eastern.
video credit: YouTube/Focus Features
photo credit: Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain
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