You know those movies that you want to watch but are “too old” for you, or you’re “too young” for? In middle school, as I was getting more into online film critics and commentaries, I came across a lot of these: movies that were critically acclaimed but that I would not be allowed to watch due to language or mature themes. Of all of these, however, one that stuck out to me was 2017’s I, Tonya, as I’d only heard snippets of the story from my parents, who were alive to remember. I urged my parents to watch it a few years ago, and the other week, I finally got around to watching it myself.
I, Tonya is a 2017 biopic recounting the rather infamous life of Tonya Harding, an ice skater who was, at one point, the best ice skater in the world. That is until a scandal involving an attack on fellow skater Nancy Kerrigan in 1994 ruined her reputation forever.
There’s so much that I want to talk about, starting with the story. As someone who didn’t know really anything about Tonya Harding, I was amazed and shocked at how crazy her life seemed, from her extremely strict mom to her rocky relationship with her husband Jeff Gilooly, even to her skating training and how she had to sew her costumes. There’s a fantastic article from Vulture that fact-checks this movie to determine what was accurate and what was just for dramatic effect, and the majority of it was pretty accurate as well.
It’s important also to address the acting in this film, which is incredible from all fronts. Margot Robbie gives a fantastic, Oscar-deserved leading performance as Tonya; she’s funny, she’s dramatic, and she makes the audience feel for her side of the story. Allison Janney won an Oscar playing Tonya’s mother LaVona, and she steals every scene she’s in, delivering such mean lines in such a matter-of-fact way I couldn’t help but gasp. Sebastian Stan plays Jeff Gilooly and he, like with every role he plays, disappears completely, looking and sounding just like him. I will die on any hill that he should’ve gotten an Oscar nomination like the other two leads. Lastly, Paul Walker-Hauser is HILARIOUS as Gilooly’s friend Shawn Eckhardt, a basement dweller who is the one who caused the Nancy Kerrigan incident to occur.
Lastly, the soundtrack of this movie is incredible. My parents raised me and my sister on a lot of ’70s and ’80s rock and boy, was it represented in this movie! I got so excited when songs like “Spirit in the Sky” by Norman Greenbaum, “Goodbye Stranger” by Supertramp, “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac, and so many other fantastic songs started playing in the background. They really add to the kind of rough atmosphere that Tonya has to deal with throughout her life.
This movie lived up to and surpassed my expectations, and I was happy to finally watch this as a “grown up”!
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