I, Tonya ***

Rating: 7/10 (6 March 2018)

I, Tonya ***
I, Tonya tells the true life story of the American Ice Skating champion Tonya Harding, her raise to fame and her downfall.
The film is really, proudly and unapologetically true grit story telling. Tonya
Harding (Margot Robbie) is a product of her environment and that environment is toxic because of the hard hitting, abusive, chain smoking, drinking Mother (Allison Janney) who'll stop at nothing to push her daughter into becoming a ice skating champion.
The film told in flash forward interviews inter cut with the back story of Harding's whole life is directed with huge amounts of energy and passion keeping the scenes flowing seamlessly in a ambitious stylized cinematic effort that pays off.
The performances are really career bests from the lead Margot Robbie who lives and breathes her part moving through various moods, emotions, hardships, confusions, time lines and issues handling all this with ease captivating a world of emotion through her face as if it was a second language.
Allison Janney almost scene steals every frame chewing up her foul stinking dialogue of this detestable Mother and gives a performance that should see her walk off with a Supporting Oscar this year.
The film provides great retelling of a event of 90s that most of the new generation would have totally been oblivious to and gives traumatic and very often comedic insight into a story that's hard to believe but that's what makes it great entertainment.
The film is truly loyal to series of events that really happened but in consequence the film's narrative struggles in the third act with a concluding a story structure which instead has the free flowing nature of a true life story that isn't going to have the same predesignated story beats that ultimately complete a neat payoff.
Hard hitting story, acting and directing produce a loyal account to crazy real life event worth witnessing to believe, with Robbie proving she's a leading actress on the road to greatness.