Brilliant performances, never slowed down.

Rating: 6/10 (21 May 2018)

This has been on my watchlist for a while now. I heard both good and poor things about this film, mostly concerning it's representation of Tonya Harding. Despite what I've heard, I went into this with a relatively open mind. I'm glad I got around to watching this film because it was quite entertaining to watch.
Starting with the acting, there is not a single noticeable weak performance in this entire film. Margot Robbie was amazing and played Tonya Harding to near perfection. Her chemistry with Sebastian Stan was great, and every time they were on screen together it was enthralling to watch their relationship slowly devolve. However, Allison Janney totally steals the show. She does an amazing job at playing LaVona, an important figure in Tonya's life. She really brings the character to life in every single scene she's in, Janney indefinitely gave a flawless performance.
The directing was pretty great. I'm happy to see that Craig Gillespie attempted to give this movie it's own visual flare and style. Some of the artistic choices worked really well while others, not so much. I wasn't a big fan of them constantly breaking the fourth wall, while it made sense it definitely broke my engagement in the story. Sometimes they use it for comedic effect but most of the time it fell flat on it's face. I also wasn't a big fan of the sheer amount of music choices. There are so many songs they use in the movie which are only there for like thirty seconds. Some of the music was inappropriate and unnecessary, fortunately it didn't ruin too many scenes.
The writing was on par with the directing. I, Tonya had a quick pace and never slowed down to tell this amazing and interesting story. Some of the jokes felt forced, but for the most part it feels like a documentary and really long flashback, which is what I believe Steven Rogers went for.
For the skating scenes they superimposed Margot Robbie's face over a stunt double and it looks quite obvious in the movie. I wish more of the budget went into the effects so that the superimposing looked more convincing. There's the obvious overabundance of songs, making it feel forced.
Overall, it's enjoyable. This movie felt heavily inspired by Wolf of Wall Street, and if you liked that movie then you'll probably find something here. They did a pretty good job of portraying her career, even though some of it feels either exaggerated or fabricated. Regardless of painting Tonya Harding as the victim in all this, I, Tonya was very entertaining.