I, Tonya (2017) Review

"Stop talking to her.  That girl is your enemy."

-LaVona Golden



I, Tonya is a black comedic telling of the life of figure skater Tonya Harding (Margo Robbie).  It's the story of her growing up poor with an abusive mother, LaVona (Allison Janney), making it in figure skating against all odds, her abusive relationship with her ex-husband, Jeff (Stan Sebastian), all leading up to the attack on rival skater Nancy Kerrigan (Caitlin Carver).  Based on conflicting interviews of everyone involved, I, Tonya shows the events of the film from everyone's different perspectives, but it also examines Tonya herself, and why she is the way she is.



What Works:

Everything.  Straight up.  This movie is incredible.  I'll start with the acting.  Everybody does amazing here.  Allison Janney is 100% deserving of her Oscar.  She was insanely good at being awful.  Sebastian Stan was great at being likable one second, and the next just being a complete pile of s**t.  Paul Walter Hasuer is hilarious as the delusional best friend of Jeff, and Tonya's bodyguard.

Margot Robbie gives her best performance as Tonya Harding.  She is really funny, and a great, if unreliable, narrator.  She is somewhat treated as a joke, but we are also taken past that and we see that this woman never really had a chance at being well adjusted.  The film examines the relationship between her, her mother, and her ex-husband, both of whom physically abused her.  Margot does a great job and showing us what a flawed, yet tragic woman Tonya Harding is.

I also want to stress how great the cinematography is.  The skating sequences are gorgeous, and if I didn't know better, I would say that was Margot doing all those crazy stunts are the ice herself.  It's really spectacular.


What Sucks:

I got nothing for ya.


Verdict:

I, Tonya is a hilarious, if dark and tragic biopic.  It does a great job at showing the different sides to the story and manages to stay hilarious, entertaining, and engaging the whole time, while giving us a very interesting character study on Tonya Harding.  It's one of the best movies of 2017, and truly has got it going on. 

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