How media makes a monster

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2020)

"I, Tonya" is a 2017 biopic directed by Craig Gillespie starring Margot Robbie and Sebastian Stan. The first film I've watched in this new decade is the infamous underdog story and fall of figure skater Tonya Harding. Before I've seen the movie I only had rudimentary knowledge about her and the famous incident that dominated the news twenty six years ago and lead to her lifetime ban of the sport. People to this day have different views on the actual happenings and of how much she was actually involved. In the opening title it's stated that this film is based on the paradoxical interviews of the participants. This information is prominently used in the narrative structure. When I was watching it, I slowly began to notice that several scenes contradicted others and it had some continuity errors or unbelievable events. The ingenious thing about it though is how it was all done on purpose to perfectly mirror the structure of said interviews. I've never seen something like this before and it really amused me. Furthermore, after seeing the original footage in the end credits I was actually blown away by how brilliantly the actors were chosen for their respective roles. The accuracy of how the actors look compared to their real-life counterparts is eerily high. Not only the outer appearance was done right, also the acting as their characters. Margot Robbie delivered her most powerful performance as of today and definitely should have won the Academy Award for best actress (if it wasn't for the magnificent Frances McDormand in "Three Billboards"). Also Allison Janney's transformation into LaVona Harding is scarily realistic and although she doesn't have that much screentime she dominates every single frame she's in. The interdependence of Robbie and Janney is simply stunning and shocking all the same. The tone of the film goes along greatly with the narrative and what I consider as precious, never judges one of the characters or mocks them in any way. Of course it has been a horrific tragedy and no one's not guilty in any way, but I think it treats everyone with fair respect in comparison to what the media did back in the day. Additionally, how the film is shot is just terrific as it has a lot of great shots, especially on the ice rink and in the slow motion scenes and a frantic editing style that captures the nasty attitude of the story. All in all, this brutal biopic showcases the infamous tragedy with enormous respect and contains both excellent performance and high quality writing and in comparison to what's the general belief gives Tonya Harding a whole new dimension to her as a person and the story that changed her life forever. I think it's great how it casts a new light on a not quite innocent but widely misunderstood woman and her life that has been mercilessly eviscerated by the media. I raise my hat to Gillespie to make this decision.