I, Tonya (2017)

Before I give my thoughts on 'I, Tonya', let me just say two words: Allison Janney. The Multiple Time Emmy-Winning Actress delivers one of the STRONGEST Performances of the year, in her portrayal of LaVona Fay Golden, Tonya Harding's Mother from hell. Janney is pure Oscar-GOLD.

And now coming to the film...

'I, Tonya' like any other sports Biopic, shows us a woman from being a bullied nobody to becoming a somebody in the world of sports. Over-here, we explore Tonya Harding's hardened journey, that is at times powerful & at times exhausting.

'I, Tonya' Synopsis: Competitive ice skater Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie, in great form) rises amongst the ranks at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, but her future in the activity is thrown into doubt when her ex-husband (Sebastian Stan, very good) intervenes.

'I, Tonya' is about Tonya's violent journey, that started from an impossible, no-holds-barred mother to a violent, brutal husband, who eventually ruined her career. But, Tonya is not a victim of her circumstances. Here is a woman, who despite being thrown into a world of ice-skating & rigorous competition, left a strong mark. She may have not done the right things to get to the position she got, but she was a talented personality who had the power to mesmerize & inspire.

Steven Rogers' Screenplay begins superbly & the personal interviews of its characters throughout the film, give it that extra edge. The first-hour is solid & gets into Tonya's world & the people involved with a wicked sense of humor. The second-hour is a little disappointing & overlong, and the sub-plot involving the 1994 attack on Nancy Kerrigan, Harding's rival and Olympic teammate, offers less impact. The Writing isn't always compelling & takes away some glory from the film, overall. The Dialogue, however, are crackling & foul to the core.

Craig Gillespie's Direction captures all the madness & ambition, with skill. The Director is in good form this time around. Nicolas Karakatsanis's Cinematography & Tatiana S. Riegel's Editing are strongly done. Art & Costume Design, as well as Make-Up, deserve a special mention.

Performance-Wise: Janney is outstanding & is sure to pick up many awards for her portrayal here. I wouldn't be surprised if she takes the Oscar home, next year! Margot Robbie, also is in very form, delivering a credible turn as Tonya. Sebastian Stan is entirely convincing as the violent husband. And Paul Walter Hauser is terrific as Shawn, one of Stan's friends, who leads Tonya & Stan, into much trouble.

On the whole, 'I, Tonya' is an imperfect biopic about an imperfect woman. Do watch it though, especially for Janney's sterling performance.

Fmovies: "I, Tonya" is a biographic film telling the story of the notorious American figure skater Tonya Harding, brilliantly performed by the Australian actress and producer Margot Robbie. The dramatic and heartbreaking storyline is supported by magnificent screenplay by Steven Rogers that combines dark comedy and docudrama and fantastic music score. The truth behind this story only Tonya Harding knows. But the film is engaging and promotes Tonya Harding to viewers that do not know her sad biography. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Eu, Tonya" ("I, Tonya")

I must have been at a different movie than those who did not like it. The story is well written, the acting was excellent and the twist in the way the story is delivered makes for a memorable event. At certain points when Tonya speaks to the audience she speaks right to you. A great story to get lost in and I was not really interested in seeing this when I went into the theater.

I, Tonya fmovies. "I, Tonya" is amazing. Margot Robbie gifts a career defining performance. Margot plays disgraced 1994 US Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding. Her performance as Tonya is fearless, vulnerable, sad and poignantly flawed. Harding is notorious for knowing about the attack upon US figure skating Champion Nancy Kerrigan which led to her eventual ban from competitive skating which was her life.

Director Craig Gillespie neither vilifies nor justifies Tonya offering the experience of being her. That she wanted to be loved, to be gotten, and to be the best. At the time Tonya was the only women's figure skater in the world to land the impossible triple axel in competition. Robbie as Tonya in an interview in the movie acknowledged when she landed the triple axel in the trials she knew, "I was the best!" Tonya was driven, the figure skating phenom, but she was less than phenom in her life. I think that is the poignancy of Gillespie's direction and Steven Rogers's story.

"I, Tonya" is not really dark comedy. "I, Tonya" is just dark with laughs in its irony and the stupidity of those closest to Tonya. The movie is the dichotomy that defines the tragedy of domestic violence and abuse. In one scene Tonya's husband Jeff, played by convincing Sebastian Stan, slams the freezer door in Tonya's face, because she questions why he didn't buy Dove ice cream bars. That is so wrong. That makes you so angry.

Gillespie depicts that pattern of abuse throughout of beating on screen. And Tonya takes it, and stays until she can no longer. The abuse originates with Mom LaVona, played by focused Allison Janney, who thinks she is tough love as she pushes her daughter in her skating career. No, Mom is an abuser. Janney's LaVona could have been comic caricature; instead she brilliantly nuances the single Mom working waitress raising her kid the way she was raised. Robbie is touching humanity as Tonya, who has the self awareness that she is uneducated, but she is smarter than she thinks and way smarter than those surrounding her.

"I, Tonya" and Robbie in contrasts of edgy humor and human cruelty touchingly tells the story of how we are raised and the people we choose to spend life with either define or curse. Much about Tonya seems to be the in order to, to prove something. In the great scene before her competition her new Coach Doty, played by strong Bojana Novakovic, tells her "You show them." That I think becomes the conversation that dominates Tonya's life.

Needing her Mom's help after she leaves husband Jeff, Tonya sees her Mom. She asks her Mom that when she was a kid, "Did you love me?" Robbie's Tonya is in tears. That breaks your heart. Really Tonya just wanted to be loved, like we all do. That may be the point of Gillespie's "I, Tonya" with all its emotional extremes and uncomfortable laughs. Perhaps, most of the laughs come from the blatant stupidity of Jeff and his idiot friend Shawn, played by good Paul Walter Hauser.

Maybe "I, Tonya" works in its profound sadness as well. Toward the end Tonya says, "I am not a monster." No, she's not. She is just the little girl who wanted to be loved and never got it. She was driven and wanted to be the best. Tonya is just human. She is both lightness and darkness. Perhaps within "I, Tonya" are loud laughs and the subtle lesson of having compassion. "I, Tonya" is one of my favorite movies of the year.

I was going to make a list of people who made extraordinary things during the same period that Tonya Harding monopolized the headlines but then I thought it was a pointless exercise. Charles Manson will always be more famous, much more than Sharon Tate. That's the world we live in or maybe it always was. The sadness verging on horror of of the Tonya Harding story will win, fascination wise, than any kind of kindness from anyone anywhere. Now that out of my system let me say that I Tonya is an entertaining harrowing tale directed by Craig Gillespie and his extraordinary cinematographer Nicholas Karakatsanis with, clearly, Martin Scorsese in their minds and hearts. Margot Robbie is terrific and Sebastian Stan as the husband from hell, superb but it's Allison Janney that creates a character that is impossible to take and irresistible at the same time. She is spectacular. So, that's more than enough to recommend I Tonya but if the Tabloid Times is something you subscribe I will highly recommend Gus Van Sant's To Die For and Michael Ritchie's made for television The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom.

So, you have watched Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and thought that story was tough and Frances McDormand was terrific and nothing could ever be more tough and more terrific. Especially something with that hot blonde chick from The Wolf of Wall Street. Right? Wrong! So get ready for a big fat kick in the nuts, because sh!t has just got real.

From the very beginning of the film you realize that it won't be pretty. An abusive ever-smoking and ever-cussing mother who would rather wipe the floor with her daughter than say a nice word to her. So destructive that even her rifle-shooting husband loses it and flees leaving a poor child completely unprotected. And when it turns from verbal abuse to the physical one, by her mother, by her boyfriend and later her husband, it's clear that it's not just not pretty - it's damn ugly, and that it's gonna get even uglier still.

The trio of Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan and Allison Janney does an unbelievable job of focusing a huge amount of anger, hate and frustration onto the single character, Tonya Harding, making almost every second of her screen time a pure pain to watch. You see her going through things you'd be waking in cold sweat from if you saw them in your dream. But, then again, for someone it was not a dream but an everyday routine. A vicious circle of abuse and humiliation, and the only way to forget it, even just for a minute, was through that ice rink, doing the only thing that would make you feel like something more than a pathetic loser with no single bright perspective ahead.

And with that ugliness comes the true power of this film, of Robbie's performance, and of the real Tonya. The power that channels all the hate she received from all around into the thirst for skating, as if that ice rink is your arena where you fight for your life - or die trying. And when it's your life at stake, things are never chivalrous or graceful - so the way the Hollywood sex symbol dies and gives birth to a relentless competitive monster is a true miracle. And, just like a miracle of a real birth, it's full of pain for both the participant and for the ones witnessing it.

What makes I, Tonya an even more shattering experience is that it's not just a made-up story, it's something that a living human being once went through. When you see her husband beat her and threaten her and even shoot a gun at her, you wish you could simply tell yourself that it's just cinema - but this time it's not quite so. When you see her mother come to her, pretending to be offering a helping hand when she's the most vulnerable - to end up being yet another vulture that came to feast on the prey that looks done but still keeps twitching - you wish you could say that no real child has come through such pain and betrayal, but you can't once again. You see a girl whose story was simply meant to be a tragedy from the very beginning - and you just wish it to be over. But she takes another hit, falls, yet for some reason refuses to stay on the floor.

I guess I realize why this film missed the Best Picture Oscar, just like Margot Robbie missed the Best Leading Actress one. Just like the real world Tonya who outskates her rivals but fails to meet the expectations about her presentation, this film is technically the most riveting and intense story this year, with the leading performance being a big shiny diamond of a masterpiece, twice as precious because it wasn't an established Oscar winner who delivered it but a gir