I, Tonya

I’ll never forget the first time I saw the footage of the "Incident." I was ten years old, and my grandmother was hovering over a tiny kitchen TV, shaking her head at a grainy video of Nancy Kerrigan crying out "Why? Why?!" It was the tabloid event of the century—a Shakespearean tragedy played out in spandex and sequins. For decades, Tonya Harding was the ultimate punchline, the "white trash" interloper who tried to knee-cap her way to gold.

But then along comes 2017’s I, Tonya, a film that doesn't just ask "Why?" but screams "Look at what you did to her." I watched this for the third time last Tuesday while my neighbor was loudly practicing the recorder in the apartment above me—a frantic, off-key rendition of "Hot Cross Buns" that strangely mirrored the chaotic, discordant energy of Tonya’s life. It’s a film that thrives on that kind of friction.

The Truth According to Everyone

Director Craig Gillespie (who later brought that same punk-rock energy to Cruella) realized early on that there is no single "truth" to the Harding/Kerrigan saga. Instead, the film adopts a mockumentary style that feels like a Scorsese flick on a Shoestring budget. Characters break the fourth wall to call each other liars, looking directly into the lens to contest a scene we just watched.

This meta-commentary is what keeps the movie from becoming a standard, boring biopic. It acknowledges that the media didn't just report on Tonya; it manufactured her. In our current era of "main character energy" and social media pile-ons, I, Tonya feels eerily prophetic. It’s a study of how we choose our villains and how much we enjoy watching them fail. The film is basically a two-hour middle finger to the concept of the 'reliable narrator.'

A Masterclass in Human Bruising

Let’s talk about Margot Robbie. Before this, she was the "it girl" from The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), but here, she disappears into a cloud of hairspray and desperation. She captures the sheer physicality of a woman who was a world-class athlete but was told she didn't have the "right" face for the sport. When she’s on the ice, she’s a powerhouse; when she’s off it, she’s a raw nerve.

Then there’s Allison Janney as LaVona Golden. If there were an Olympic event for "Toxic Parenting," LaVona would take the gold, silver, and bronze. Janney plays this woman with a bird on her shoulder and a soul made of sandpaper, delivering lines that are as hilarious as they are soul-crushing. Her performance earned an Oscar, and deservedly so—she manages to make a monster feel human, even if that human is someone you’d never want to share an elevator with.

Sebastian Stan (our favorite Winter Soldier from the Captain America films) plays Jeff Gillooly, and he’s terrifyingly good at being pathetic. Their relationship is a violent, revolving door of abuse that the film handles with a jarring, dark humor. It’s a risky tone—laughing one second and flinching the next—but it accurately reflects the "normalcy" of chaos for people who have grown up in it.

The Idiocy of the "Hit"

The middle act shifts into a Coen Brothers-style caper, led by Paul Walter Hauser (who was brilliant in Richard Jewell) as Shawn Eckardt. Shawn is the self-proclaimed "intelligence operative" who lived in his parents' basement and essentially doomed Tonya’s career through sheer, unadulterated incompetence.

The film doesn't treat the assault on Nancy Kerrigan as a masterstroke of villainy; it treats it as a pathetic, bungled mess executed by morons. This isn't a heist movie; it's a 'stupid-off' where everyone loses. Watching the "plan" unfold is like watching a slow-motion car crash involving a clown car. You want to look away, but the absurdity is too magnetic.

Behind the Sequins

Interestingly, the real Tonya Harding was reportedly paid only $1,500 for the rights to her story, though she eventually became a consultant on the film. Margot Robbie actually spent months training on the ice, though she (wisely) left the triple axels to the pros and CGI. The production was a true indie effort—filmed in just 31 days on a tight $11 million budget. You can feel that lean, hungry energy in every frame.

The soundtrack is also a character in itself, pulsing with 70s and 80s rock like "The Chain" and "Goodbye Stranger." It’s the kind of music that makes you feel like you can take on the world, right before the world trips you in the parking lot.

I, Tonya is a rare beast: a funny movie about tragic people. It’s a drama that refuses to be "prestige," choosing instead to be loud, messy, and fiercely entertaining. It’s a film that reminds us that behind every tabloid headline is a person who probably just wanted to be loved—or at least, a person who really, really didn't want to go back to waitressing.

If you haven't seen it, or if you only remember Tonya from the late-night jokes of the 90s, do yourself a favor and watch this. It’s a wild ride that proves life is usually stranger, funnier, and much sadder than the "official" version of events we see on the news. Just maybe skip the recorder practice while you’re at it.