I, Tonya

The story of Tonya Harding and her ice skating career is, to say the least, a touch absurd. Equal parts sympathetic and pathetic, her up and down life was the perfect tabloid fodder for the 90’s, and the perfect subject for a biopic. If this was a straight biopic, it wouldn’t work. Movies like Walk The Line give you the ups and downs, but the goal is still to make their subject shine. I, Tonya has no pretenses to that. Presented as part biopic and part mockumentary, it features “interviews” with the actors portraying Tonya, her husband Jeff, mother LaVona, and other figures in her life. This allows the movie to be framed by a couple different narrators, each with their own agendas (in fact, the movie starts off saying it is based on “irony free, totally contradictory interviews” with Jeff and Tonya). Thus, the movie side-steps the issue of dramatic license by having multiple unreliable narrators. What’s real? What isn’t? The movie is honest from the jump that it isn’t even sure. This allows a lot more freedom with telling the story. Sometimes, it even breaks the fourth wall, as the characters offer commentary during narrative parts, but it never feels forced or out of place. Everybody here acts like Oscars are on the line. Margot Robbie. Sebastian Shaw, and Allison Janney all put in fantastic performances, and Paul Hauser steals every scene he’s in as the clueless, delusional Shawn Eckardt. The soundtrack is mostly classic rock staples like Joan Jett, Fleetwood Mac, and Bad Company, which fit Tonya’s life and persona, and give the movie a lot of energy. It never once feels its two hour run time. Seriously, I have no criticisms of this movie. It’s fantastic. It doesn’t hold back in showing how toxic everybody is, it doesn’t frame everything from one point of view, and it has some fun along the way. Absolute kick-ass movie.