Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain REVIEW! | Anthony Bourdain Documentary

A new documentary about Anthony Bourdain’s life, from being a great chef to becoming a travel TV host, to his unfortunate death, is hitting theaters this weekend. “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” does a lot of things right, but there are areas that hold this back from being great. So is it worth a trip to the theaters this weekend? I’ll answer that and much more in my review of “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain”!

Suicide Prevention Hotline: U.S., 800-273-8255

TIMECODES:

00:00:00 Intro
00:01:37 What Works
00:05:48 What Holds It Back From Being Great..
00:07:49 Overall Thoughts

Directed by: Morgan Neville

Starring: Anthony Bourdain

I screened this early for review, thanks to Focus Features and Allied Integrated Marketing!

—

Find Reel James on:

—

“Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” hits theaters on July 16, 2021!

#RoadRunnerAnthonyBourdain #AnthonyBourdainDocumentary #ReelJames

[ReelJames]

*Are you checking out this Anthony Bourdain documentary this weekend?*

*EDIT: This review was filmed and uploaded prior to the news that the director used artificial intelligence for Bourdain’s narration in this documentary. If you ask me, that hurts the documentary’s authenticity. 😕*

[bryanworkman]

I respectfully disagree. They didnt focus too much on Asia, but it is undeniable that her actions had an effect on him. There seems to be no single catalyst to his suicide. It is a lifetime of searching for belonging and love. His Asia phase was a strange part of his life where he was trying to create his own distorted reality to match his romanticized expectations of life (which is the prevailing theme). Once Asia's actions broke that faux-life he was confronted again with his actual reality. A life of self-inflicted suffering by not choosing his family over his appetite for unknown purpose or a question not yet defined that he was trying to answer. The Asia phase is a very important part of his story.

[SamSung-nftr]

By coincidence, I have been listening to both Kitchen Confidential & Medium Raw.
He talks about suicide throughout both books.
Fork in a road
Depending on what the DJ played determined if which way he was to go.
Listen to the books.
He reads them & you feel like he's talking directly to you.

[patrickkmullins]

Did you know an A.I. voice model was used to recreate quote Bourdain may or may not have said?

[shannondore]

This makes me sad, I miss him. I'll check it out eventually.😢

[backto-ilne]

The Asia Argento bit I found repulsive. They literally blamed her for his suicide. I found that truly disgusting.

[mondowrongo]

I agree, they put a lot of blame Asia Argentino, the fact they all have nothing but negative things to say about her and she wasn’t invited to interview. I think it was a bit soon for the documentary really. Emotions are still pretty raw.

[elizabethmenendez]

I watch a lot of documentaries and I have never had a documentary stump me. I honestly can't tell if I like it or not. I wasn't a fan of how the documentary dealt with Asia and it did feel like it was trying to put the blame on her in some way. The artificial intelligence thing is stupid and I wish they would've let his friend read it. It would've been much more powerful, but they wanted to use that line in the trailer I think. I love some of the edits like where we see the blood after he kills a pig and goes into the red carpet events. I honestly don't know. I feel like I'd have to watch it again to make a final judgement.

[destinationsroadslesstraveled]

Even watching for example some episodes of No Reservations or Parts Unknown more so the episodes that were filmed in Southeast Asia I often have to pause sometimes watching a scene while he was narrating. I can relate to much of his life in my own travels and I remember the moment I read of his death. I was stunned and still shaken by it because I often related to him and his urge to keep moving.
Because of Covid I have been unable to travel for almost two years and am still unable to return to my new home Thailand. Hardly a moment I do not think of my times in Asia and I often think of Anthony. I really took my life for granted there I often feel I am dying inside not being able to move.

[zzzxx]

I believe anthony died from public humiliation, from advocating widely as a MeToo supporter to then be named as the person who paid Asia's victim to silence. That, combined with the supposed cheating and everything else definitely came to surface and pushed him over an edge he had been standing on for a long time. Very very sad.

[MikeBarbre]

Why the hell WOULDN'T you want to know the "why"? At the end of the day, that's the be-all, end-all question. Why, on that particular night, did he go through with it?

[benjaminjensen]

Why is it still called “committed suicide” as if it’s a crime? Why can’t some compassion be stoked down and stated as: “he killed himself”?! “Committed suicide”; “committed murder” “committed homicide” just stop

[illuddivinus]

You use more words than necessary, and not quiet the evocative rationale to understand what it is you’re trying to convey. Less is more guy.