April 10, 2018 1 min to read

I, Tonya

Why can't it just be about my skating? is a question for the ages.

by Zach Saul

At its core, I Tonya is a movie about classism, and to what extent “nurture” can explain someone’s poor behavior. Allison Janney and Margot Robbie have an excellent chemistry together and their wry wit works well throughout the movie. What makes I, Tonya work isn’t it’s shattering of the fourth wall or its flashy editing; it’s that its characters are riddled with moral ambiguity, and the audience teeters between loving at hating them. I, Tonya hammers the question into the ground: if we expect someone who “looks” like white trash to behave like white trash, what chance are we giving poor people from middle America to escape a familiar fate? What degree of knowledge and premeditation did real-life Tonya have in the bludgeoning of Nancy Kerrigan? Only Tonya knows. However, this film definitely made me believe that classism in the skating community is a huge problem; particularly for women for whom image standards are harsher and more unforgiving. There’s a particularly poignant line in the film where Tonya innocently asks a judge in a parking garage:

Why can’t it just be about my skating?

This was a heartbreaking moment to watch because while Tonya is right it’s hypocritical and perhaps even dishonest to have an athletic competition judged on something other than athletics - its a reality most people in the working world know all too well. If opportunities were given out in a pure meritocracy the world would look vastly different.

The Good: I, Tonya features the sleek editing and stylized narration we’ve grown accustomed to in biopics of the last few years. It’s an easy movie to watch that’s sharply punctuated and brilliantly acted. (Particularly Allison Janney’s performance that will surely receive recognition at the Oscars.)

The Bad: Some will argue that I, Tonya works too hard to defend a very flawed protagonist. As someone who knew very little about the real-life story before seeing the film - I’ll admit the screenwriter’s opinion/perspective was present in the film. For those who demand an unbiased journalistic account of the events, I recommend staying away.