Review of I, Tonya (2017) by Tejasnair — 09 Aug 2018
I, Tonya is a film about nearly everything. It has a woman skater (Margot Robbie) being ruthlessly trained on her mother's (Allison Janney) insistence since she was 4; it has domestic abuse; and it has a stupid crime.
Yet what has stayed with me after I completed watching the movie was an exchange of dialogues between Robbie's character, Tonya Harding, and another who judged her skating performance few minutes ago and gave a bad rating.
She asks why was she being rated low, to which the judge replies that performance is not only about skating, you have to project yourself as a good American from a wholesome family. "Why can't it be only about skating?", Harding asks and the judge drives away without an answer.
I love that scene, and a plenty more in director Craig Gillespie's I, Tonya because it chafes the reality and serves it with dark comedy. I don't know if I laughed out loud in any of the scenes, but everyone in the cast look like they travelled back 20 years to play life, and I did chuckle a lot.
Most notable Janney, Robbie, and Sebastian Stan in that order. I, Tonya is less about the sport and more about what external stimuli can do to someone who plays it. A good watch because it's a very well-made and objective film and not your usual biopic.
TN.
This review of I, Tonya (2017) was written by Tejasnair on 09 Aug 2018.
I, Tonya has generally received very positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
