Robbie & Janney are en pointe

Rating: 9/10 (22 January 2018)

I, TONYA (2017) ***1/2 Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney, Julianne Nicholson, Paul Walter Hauser, Bobby Cannavale. Robbie gives a clear-eyed, laser focused turn - a career high - as figure skater Olympian Tonya Harding, whose arduous climb into celebrity and the limelight was only earmarked for the planned attack on her competition, Nancy Kerrigan, and the aftermath of becoming a global punch-line instead. Filmmaker Craig Gillespie goes the Martin Scorsese route ala "GoodFellas" with characters breaking the 4th wall, a pop jukebox of rock and FM staples to underscore the proceedings at hand and outrageously larger than life costumes (thanks to Jennifer Johnson). Janney is Oscar bound as Harding's domineering monstrous mother whose vile bile poisons her daughter's life and enlivens things overall.