Gripping but not really funny

Rating: 7/10 (8 February 2018)

I, Tonya is a surprisingly good movie and much of the credit goes to Margot Robbie and Allison Janney who were both excellent. If you want to call this a "dark comedy" though I guess that would be alright but don't expect a lot of laughs. The humor is really in the storytelling, full of irony, plus the foul language and violence which is kind of taken to absurd, almost comedic levels.
Anyway, Tonya is portrayed throughout as a fiercely combative woman who gives as good as she gets. She's no timid victim except perhaps when going up against her mom in the early years. You can infer what you will about that as it applies to the "the incident" as it is called. I mean, the real Tonya always seemed more sweet that prone to violence at least in public interviews. But if she is in reality anything like the Margo Robbie character, I would have to say that yes, she could easily have been complicit.
But I liked this movie especially because of the way it contrasts the "two" Tonyas - Tonya while on the ice vs Tonya everywhere else in her life. The skating scenes were awesome (good music throughout, BTW), with Tonya's gracefulness and athleticism on full display. Everywhere else in her life though it was pretty much chaos, so the skating seems likely to have been an escape for her. This is reinforced in the movie by her relationship with her proper coach who is so very different from her mom you have to wonder if Tonya ever wished she actually had been her mom.
Also, taking everyone back to your main character's childhood is a ploy that always works for me in movies in general (like in "Contact" etc). Its just something that inevitably causes tears to well somewhere along the line while evoking sympathy for your character.