I, Tonya

I, Tonya

From the format to the performances to the insane source material to the incredibly fast pace, this is an undeniably entertaining movie from start to finish.

For anyone not familiar with the infamous story of Tonya Harding, she was the first female figure skater to successfully pull off two triple axels (spinning three and a half times in one jump) in one competition. Oh, and right before the 1994 Winter Olympics her competitor Nancy Kerrigan got her knee whacked by a guy that turned out to be a friend of a friend of Harding's ex-husband. That second part got a lot more press, and Harding became synonymous with sabotage, despite most people never really knowing whether or not Harding was actually involved in the attack.

I, Tonya opens by revealing it's entirely based off of interviews with Harding, her mother, her coach, her ex-husband, his bodyguard, and a guy from the magazine that first covered the Kerrigan story, so right away it's clear that the film is choosing a very personal (and more than likely biased) perspective on these events. This makes the movie all the more interesting and allows it to go really crazy with the storytelling, starting with all of the interviews being reenacted by the actors playing the real people who were being interviewed. The style definitely follows in the line of The Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short in terms of being a fast-paced, self-aware biopic, complete with characters looking into the camera and saying "This really happened." and funny fictional cutaways. This style can very easily come off as forced, but I think for the most part the movie does a good job of making it work. There's so much energy and passion for this story that it's hard not to have a great time, even when they're kind of making light of a vast amount of terrible that really happened, namely lots of physical abuse inflicted almost entirely on Tonya.

It feels like Margot Robbie has been wanting to play Tonya Harding her whole life, and this is her finally getting her wish fulfilled (she even produced the thing!). She's sympathetic, strong-willed, and has a natural charisma that makes her all the more likable when she's telling off everyone around her. They do a great job of emphasizing the fact that while Nancy Kerrigan (who's hardly in the film) is a typical American sweetheart, Tonya Harding is far more American in the truer sense of the word. She always sticks up for herself both verbally and physically, she's proud of her lower class status, and she's always out to prove herself to the world while simultaneously not even slightly caring about what anyone else thinks of her. Like her or not, she'll always be coming back in one form or another, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop her.

The rest of the cast is fantastic. Allison Janney, who's always been a personal favorite of mine, steals every scene she's in. She adores every second of playing this horrible monster of a mother, who justifies her actions by saying she's made Tonya a champion, which in some ways is hard to argue. She's an extreme, but still authentic, example of those crazy sports parents. Sebastian Stan is great at playing both young and old Jeff Gillooly, particularly at making him come across as innocent at first but then revealing that he's just as terrible as Tonya's mother without it feeling like he's playing a completely different character. He's a guy who has a spectrum that goes from gentle to psychotic and even when it spikes suddenly, it's clear he's the same guy. Paul Walter Hauser (who I'll always think of as the Juggalo high schooler in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) is hilarious as Shawn, Jeff's friend and "bodyguard", though he definitely just plays him dumb and doesn't necessarily bring a lot of humanity to him. All of these actors help bring alive the film's speedy and wild world by emphasizing the desperation that all of these people really felt and acted upon.

There's really only a couple gripes with the movie that I can muster up. It's clear when Margot Robbie's face is digitally plastered onto real skaters' faces, and can cause a slight uncanny valley effect. She definitely did some actual skating, but it's very obvious when it's no longer her. The film also features wall-to-wall classic rock songs, which at times can feel like a little much, like they're trying too hard to be Goodfellas or Boogie Nights (this also applies to a lot of the camera work, but I was fine with that because it worked). But that's honestly about it.

There's lots of people who still don't like Tonya Harding, either because they still think she's involved in Kerrigan's assault, which is fair, or because outspoken women with strong opinions annoy them, which is not as fair. Either way, this film is a reminder that she came from a very tough place and only ever wanted to be the best at what she did, no matter what it took. Love her or hate her, it's a fascinating American story that won't soon be forgotten.

Also, shout out to Sufjan Steven's incredible "Tonya Harding", which doesn't appear in the film, both because it's fun to mention him two reviews in a row, but also if it had appeared in the film it would probably have made him an Oscar-hopeful for two different films in the same year. Oh well.