Judged by the media and for being famous

Rating: 7/10 (16 February 2018)

All in all, this film is about 7/10. But uneven as it is, it has aspects worthy of a 10 and others worthy of about 3. It just tries a bit too hard to be entertaining resulting in a loss of credibility. It's hard to really relate to.
The most engaging thing about I, Tonya is its energy. Craig Gillespie is a talented film maker (wonderful Lars and the Real Girl) working really hard to keep things always on the move. He is helped greatly by editor Tatiana S. Riegel, nominated for an Oscar. On the other hand, Gillespie kind of shoots himself in the leg by rolling a never-ending collection of pop songs, some of which are way over-used already. Case in point: Gillespie doesn' realize/care that Supertramp's Goodbye, Stranger is, in a way, "owned" by Magnolia. It seems a dull choice here. Note, also, that the film is largely modeled after The Big Short's irreverent style.
Actors in this film written, surprisingly enough, by Captain America are uniformly great, but Margot Robbie really deserves to be up for an Oscar. She has scale, fury, presence and great technique to pull of playing the real Tonya she resembles in almost no way (really, the height difference, the face etc.). Robbie is the real show here. But they are all great, from Sebastian Stan to Paul Walter Hauser.
Then there's the hugely entertaining Allison Janney. It's a great performance, but also troublesome. Tonya's mom is a "real piece of work". A truly horrible mother. But, Janney makes her fiercely unapologetic character so charismatic and funny, that the true monstrousness doesn't surface. It's a sleazy choice, if you think about it, trivializing abuse. Same criticism goes for the marital abuse Tonya has to suffer. It's played here as entertainment.
And entertainment this movie is. That is why almost no time is spent with Tonya's grueling training, the greatest power that shaped her adolescence. Thus, we don't really get a grasp of the quantity of sacrifice she made as child and a youth. And the movie is still overlong.
Among the things I, Tonya does really well is putting things in perspective and revealing the falsehoods we've accepted in a different light. As the film's passionate claim goes, Tonya was responsible for next to nothing relating to the assault on Nancy Kerrigan. Yet, she suffered the biggest punishment and is still the main "bad guy" in the public eye. I, Tonya drives this point forcefully to home, and kudos for that.