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Review: I, Tonya (2017) ★★★

<p><span class&equals;"s1">There is something inherently cheap about biographical dramas concerning contemporary figures&comma; particularly living figures&period; If I watch <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;wp&period;me&sol;p8zIUb-mn"><em>Marie Antoinette<&sol;em> &lpar;2006&rpar;<&sol;a>&comma; I may feel that there are historical inaccuracies&comma; or praise it for portraying significant events with the proper amount of reverence&comma; but anything I say will be&comma; at least in part&comma; uninformed&semi; similarly&comma; anything a filmmaker does to reproduce the life of someone in the distant past requires some artistic license&comma; as we can only know so much about the times&comma; and people who occupied them&period; There is a shroud of mystery&comma; and thus we are left to interpret their artistic merit&period; So&comma; when a film like <em>I&comma; Tonya<&sol;em> &lpar;2017&rpar; comes along&comma; portraying a woman whose time in the spotlight can still be remembered by large swathes of the population&comma; there is a sense that the filmmakers are just blandly recounting the events&comma; like a sports announcer giving us play-by-play coverage&period; Granted&comma; in this particular case&comma; inaccuracy and blatant fiction are an integral part of the script&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span class&equals;"s1">The film begins with text justifying these liberties by stating that&comma; due to conflicting accounts from various parties&comma; the chaos behind Tonya Harding’s meteoric rise is still shrouded in mystery&comma; now more legend than anything else&period; Despite this warning&comma; we know that there were investigations&comma; and there were hundreds of news reports&comma; so the basic facts remain intact&comma; making the film feel somewhat unnecessary and forced&period; It’s only the underlying messiness that is up for interpretation&comma; and it is the hope of the filmmaker&&num;8217&semi;s that that is all audiences would want to see anyway&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span class&equals;"s1">The film follows Tonya from a young age&comma; when her mother strong-arms a prominent skating coach into taking her daughter on as a student despite her young age&period; Her mother&comma; LaVona &lpar;Allison Janney&rpar;&comma; is ruthless&comma; belittling Tonya in the hopes that this will make her a star figure skater&period; As Tonya grows into a young adult &lpar;played by Margot Robbie&rpar;&comma; she seems to both love and hate skating&period; She loves it because she is good at it&comma; but hates it because it is the only thing her mother allows her to do&period; One day while out on the ice&comma; Tonya meets Jeff &lpar;Sebastian Stan&rpar;&comma; an awkward young man who has taken a special interest in her&period; Against her mother’s wishes&comma; Tonya begins a tumultuous relationship with him&comma; one that continues on and off throughout her career&comma; culminating in the investigation into the attack on rival skater&comma; Nancy Kerrigan &lpar;Caitlin Carver&rpar;&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span class&equals;"s1">There is nothing particularly remarkable about <em>I&comma; Tonya<&sol;em> other than its outlandish &lpar;but moderately factual&rpar; story&period; Despite its many Academy Award nominations&comma; there is very little substance to be found in the script&period; Tonya Harding’s story is certainly interesting and warrants further review&comma; but the film is similar in its approach as most other biopics made in the last 20 years&period; It also bares a striking resemblance in style and pacing to Scorsese’s <em>The Wolf of Wall Street <&sol;em>&lpar;2013&rpar;&comma; which also features Robbie&comma; oddly enough&period; Director Craig Gillespie clearly took inspiration from Scorsese’s superior work&comma; but lacked the vision to make his film &lpar;or script&rpar; a memorable one&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;1443" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-1443" style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-1443 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;06&sol;tonya-creeps-1024x567&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Sebastian Stan and Paul Walter Hauser in I&comma; Tonya 2017" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"443" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-1443" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">I&comma; Tonya &lpar;2017&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><span class&equals;"s1">For a biographical drama&comma; <em>I&comma; Tonya<&sol;em> is surprisingly disinterested in its main subject&period; About halfway through the film&comma; the story shifts almost completely away from Tonya to focus on the behind-the-scenes machinations of Jeff and his pathetically inept friend&comma; Shawn &lpar;Paul Hauser&rpar;&period; Unfortunately&comma; this is actually where the story picks up steam&comma; as the beginning half of the script just recycles the same points made in the first 20 minutes or so&colon; Tonya has a complicated relationship with her mother&comma; Tonya has a complicated relationship with skating&comma; and Tonya has a complicated relationship with Jeff&period; The backstory of the attack on Nancy Kerrigan is actually a welcome change from the predictable introduction&period; It actually got to the point where I was far more interested in Shawn’s character than I ever was in Tonya’s&comma; if only because his performance was so funny and ridiculous that I found it hard to believe he was based on a real person&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span class&equals;"s1">At a certain point&comma; <em>I&comma; Tonya<&sol;em> actually becomes a very entertaining film&comma; mostly due to the inherent peculiarity of the story on which it was based&period; However&comma; contemporary retellings of &lpar;relatively&rpar; contemporary events are hard to pull off without seeming cheap and opportunistic&period; There is a nostalgia for the 90s going around that Hollywood has picked up on&comma; so I’m sure there will be plenty more scripts cashing in on the craze&comma; though it doesn’t make the filmmakers seem any less avaricious in their intent&period; Nonetheless&comma; if you are a fan of Tonya Harding&comma; or fascinated by her story&comma; or simply nostalgic for the 90s&comma; then <em>I&comma; Tonya<&sol;em> is worth your time&period; If not&comma; there are certainly far superior biopics out there&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span class&equals;"s1">Rating&colon; &starf;&starf;&starf; <&sol;span><span class&equals;"s1">out of 5<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you&&num;8217&semi;d like to watch <span class&equals;"s1"><em>I&comma; Tonya<&sol;em>&comma; the full movie is available to rent or purchase via Amazon <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B07892V3VY&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B07892V3VY&amp&semi;linkId&equals;cce3d96de24c890224503df11f3427cf"><u>here<&sol;u><&sol;a>&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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