Going for the Gold

Rating: 9/10 (13 January 2018)

"The haters always say, Tonya tell the truth! There's no such thing as truth."
What is the truth? Is it what we hear about through other sources (gossip, the press, television, social media) or is it only what we want the truth to be? "I, Tonya" takes on the controversial true story of Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan and the violent figure skating mele that shocked the nation 24 years ago this month. But despite the age gap, "I, Tonya" is a film for our times. The complicated insanity of this particular story mirrors so much of what we've been living through in this country lately. A time of anxiety, fear and paranoia of who to trust, what is right from wrong and what on earth is about to come next.
You would think, in that sense, that "I, Tonya" would make a mockery of Tonya Harding. You would think that Hollywood would portray her as a piece of white trash from fly-over-country who got everything she deserved. We love to do this to each other. We enjoy a gladiator show of reaffirming our popular views in the court of public opinion. But "I, Tonya" chooses not to go down that path. Instead, it chooses an area just as problematic.. siding with Tonya Harding. Based on what we know about the case from the initial news reports, it isn't wise for any critical thinker to take Harding's word for what actually happened. We will never know for sure if she was an accomplice in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan or not. She was, at the very least, complicit in Jeff Gillooly's bungled attempt at sabotage. But in the end, does all of this really matter? Did we as viewers find it problematic that GoodFellas was based on Henry Hill's account of his time in the Mafia? Did we find it unsettling as Boogie Nights recounted the awful story of the Wonderland murders and the tragedy of pornstar John Holmes? We all did, but those are two great films. I, Tonya is a great film.
I adored every last frame of this film. It is precisely the kind of energy and inspiration that keeps me going to the movies. Fearless, powerful, raw and most importantly, real. Craig Gillespie holds nothing back. Steven Roger's amazing screenplay doesn't mince words. By far and beyond, it is the best edited film of 2017. Clearly reminiscent of Thelma Schoonmaker. The icing on the cake are the performances. Margot Robbie is electrifying as Tonya Harding. Sebastian Stan plays the utterly despicable Jeff Gillooly perfectly. A soft spoken dummy and a wife beater. His portly companion Shawn Eckhardt (played by Paul Walter Hauser) is a full-on riot. The worst hitman in human history. A conspiracy nut who orchestrated an international incident from his parent's house and willingly exposed himself to the FBI. You could only find this kind of stupid in America. The role that everyone is talking about is Allison Janey's shocking portray of Tonya's mother, LaVona Fay Golden. A commanding on-screen performance for the ages. She's a horrifying cross between Nurse Ratched and Terence Fletcher. Sometimes, the film plays up a lot of the abuse that Tonya took from Golden and Gillooly, much of it violent. It is more matter of fact, than funny. At times, it's painful to sit through. But then two seconds later, you are laughing at a funny quip from any of the characters on screen. This is real life. It's horrifying, it's funny, it's absurd. Take the trip and you will love it as much as I did.