Superior biopic with two barnstorming performances.

Rating: 10/10 (6 March 2018)

'I, Tonya' is written by Steven Rogers and directed by Craig Gillespie and stars Margot Robbie as disgraced Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding. It covers the time between when Tonya was just 6 years old all the way up to her sentencing for the organised attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan in 1994. Allison Janney plays Lavona Harding, Tonya's despicable abusive mother, in a well deserved Oscar winning performance. Sebastian Stan plays Tonya's husband Jeff Gillooly. The entire cast is excellent in their respective parts they play in the story but it's the barnstorming performances by Robbie and Janney that really win you over. In the genre of biopics this is very much reminiscent of Scorsese's 'Wolf of Wall Street' in the way the story is told using voice over and fourth wall breaks. Many also called it the 'Goodfellas' of ice skating and I can see why to some extent but I definitely feel it has more in common with the former Scorsese picture.
The direction and editing are very sharp and swift here and seamlessly interweave interviews from the characters after the incident with the events leading up to it as they unfold. Steven Rogers deserves a lot of credit too for his great screenplay. Not only did he specifically write the part of Lavona for Janney (a role she was seemingly born to play) but he skillfully balanced comedy with an issue as sensitive as domestic abuse. The movie also doesn't try to make Tonya out to be a total victim but instead opts to show how her relationships with her mother and husband shaped who she became- I highly appreciated this approach of the film.
Perhaps deserving of the most credit and praise is Margot Robbie who not only gives a great performance in the title role but also produced the movie and helped get it off the ground when no one else wanted to make it. All in all 'I, Tonya' is a fast-paced, superbly acted and superior biopic.