I knew this was going to be fun. I didn't know it would be amazing.
As you probably already know, I, Tonya follows the life of Tonya Harding through the trials of her relationships with family, husband, peers, and fame. The centerpiece, of course, concerns her role in the infamous attack on rival Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan. It's all an arresting look into the wild and horrifying lives of Harding, her mother, her husband, and the people connected to them, especially for those of us who don't exactly remember the whole story but grew up with chilled references to a "crazy", "white trash" woman too "desperate" for her fame.
In many ways, this film is a sort of fever dream that espouses a lot of the public's condemnation of Harding; in others, it brazenly toys with narrative conventions, primarily that of reliability. We see her life mediated by the news, her coach, her mother. The film is framed as a mockumentary, with the filmmakers interviewing the characters years after the events of Harding's youth. Interspersed are moments of re-created history, often featuring the characters breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to us, the audience. With all these interruptions, conspicuous editing, and downright manipulative storytelling, we're never quite sure of the truth of her life. Screenwriter Steven Rogers and director Craig Gillespie (who also directed the Fright Night remake, a personal favorite) has masterfully fashioned a film that is so meta we can't help but swallow it all.
Amazingly, despite the whirlwind story, the film is easy to watch. The moment it was done, I was ready to view it again. It's breezy and smart, cracking like a whip, and never slows its pace. Right when the more poignant insights start to creep up, the movie cuts to an awkward, crude, funny scene that totally shakes your emotional connection. My personal favorite moment was a point when the story concerns Harding's marriage and burgeoning Olympic dreams, and out of a clear blue sky, we cut to the mockumentary interview with her mother, who casually notes she's drifted out of the story before lighting a cigarette and intoning, "What. The. Fuck." Then we go right back to Harding's story. It's incredible.
The film, apart from being a masterclass in screenwriting and editing, also features amazing cinematography and production design. The sets, costumes, and hairstyles are so accurate -- and so disgustingly period -- that a major theme emerges from the mise en scene: The overwhelming professional prejudice against "white trash" and the efforts of determined individuals, especially women, to overcome class boundaries. The stew of jealousy, desperation, cruelty, and injustice bubble into a boiling mess that makes the crazy behavior of these characters totally believable, even logical. In this way, while major parts of this movie are uproariously funny, by the end we realize we've been struck at the heart with some carefully calculated sneak attack blows. In many ways, I'd compare this film to Black Swan in several ways: its portrayal of desperate characters descending into an amoral madness to achieve their goals, issues of violent lovers and terrifying mothers, and remarkably similar cinematography. The camera is fabulously kinetic, whirling and twirling as quickly as Harding on ice, and the visual effects slide in and out almost without our awareness.
What else can I say? I didn't expect I, Tonya to be one of my favorite movies this year, but here we are. Margot Robbie delivers her best performance yet, Sebastian Stan is equally mesmerizing. Little supporting roles from Julianne Nicholson and Bobby Cannavale are charming. Allison Janney may very well win her Oscar as Harding's chain-smoking mother with a bird on her shoulder, an impossibly rich character, one of her career's best performances. Funny and smart, terrifying and engaging, wicked and beautiful, this is one of those genre-defying films that pops out of nowhere and steals your heart. And it boasts a killer soundtrack that'll have you tapping and singing along. What could be better?
IMDb: I, Tonya
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