I, Tonya

[mochakitty]

From Wikipedia:

I, Tonya is a 2017 American biographical sports black comedy film directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Steven Rogers. The film stars Margot Robbie as figure skater Tonya Harding and Sebastian Stan as Jeff Gillooly, alongside Julianne Nicholson, Caitlin Carver, Bobby Cannavale, and Allison Janney in supporting roles. The plot tells the story of the 1994 attack on Nancy Kerrigan, Harding's rival and Olympic teammate.

I, Tonya had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2017, and was released in the United States on December 8, 2017. The film received positive reviews, with the performances of Robbie and Janney earning notable praise from critics. It received three nominations at the 75th Golden Globe Awards: Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actress – Comedy or Musical for Robbie and Best Supporting Actress for Janney.

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I, Tonya @ IMDb.com

[Deleted]

I’m skipping this one. I’m old enough to remember when all the shit went down with Nancy Kerrigan, and I’m from Massachusetts so most of us are Team Nancy out here. I have no desire to see a movie glorifying someone who was party to the assault on her (I think Tonya knew it was going down or at least tried to cover it up after the fact even if it wasn’t her idea.)

That being said, if Allison Janney gets some awards out of it that’d be cool because I love her.

[Ladybug]

I want to see this based on Tom and Lorenzo's review of it on their podcast. According to them, it's not a flattering portrayal of Tonya, and they were surprised to learn that she cooperated on making the film because it is really making fun of her badly.

When I went to Portland this summer, I went on a guided tour of the city and we passed the mall where Tonya Harding trained at the ice rink. I remember the incident as well, and I was a huge Nancy Kerrigan fan.

[Deleted]

I have a friend in Oregon that I visit every year and for a while she lived fairly close to the Lloyd Center, so I’ve been there a few times. It is freaking enormous and the rink is a lot bigger than one would think a skating rink in a mall would be. Also the food court takes up an entire floor and it is glorious. My friend has since moved to a different town so we don’t go there anymore and I kinda miss it.

Topic: I might have to rethink my stance on this if the movie doesn’t make her come off well. If it does then I’m not surprised that Tonya still cooperated with them. She’s incredibly publicity hungry and she was probably stoked that Margot Robbie, a woman who is far more attractive than her, is playing her.

[Deleted]

I was squirmy when I first heard about this movie, and it still makes me uncomfortable. This actually happened, people need to remind themselves of that, and it wasn't all that long ago. Nancy Kerrigan was assaulted. If her attacker had been more accurate, he could have crushed her kneecap (he hit her on her thigh) and she could have been crippled for life. That doesn't seem like great fodder for comedy. Not judging anyone who goes to see it, you do you, but I'll be skipping it as well.

Also, after seeing the 30 for 30 documentary, I'm totally Team Nancy. Yeah she might have been a bit of a wet blanket (and she may have cheated with her married manager, now husband? That's not exactly keeping with the perfect ice princess role that the media gave her, and she completely embraced), but over the years she has handled this with a lot of class. Tonya on the other hand was given the sympathetic edit in the documentary and yet somehow still came across as a bitter, unrepentant asshole. I'm sorry her Mom was abusive but her Dad seemed great. You can only milk the tough childhood thing so far.

[kostgard]

I too was kinda surprised at Tonya's appearance at the premiere, but she is and always has been hungry for fame and fortune, so I guess the fact that the film isn't flattering to her doesn't matter.

The 30 for 30 doc really is the best thing I've seen on this topic, and I did walk away with more respect for Nancy and even less than my already-nonexistent respect for Tonya. It really showed how tough as nails Nancy was. Her team was all, "Do you want to start therapy to deal with your attack?" and she was all, "Nope. I gotta train for the Olympics. I'll deal with the emotional scars when the Olympics are over."

Tonya was still bitter and still blaming everyone other than herself for how her life turned out. She was enormously talented, but she also has a massive chip on her shoulder. Did her looks/tacky taste hurt her? Probably. Figure skating is like that. But here's the thing...when she was on her game, she was winning. When she turned it out, they had no problem handing her gold medals. But she was an undisciplined brat. And she flipped between periods where she was focused and doing really well with periods where she refused to train, gained weight and got sloppy with her skating. Then got mad that they didn't just hand everything over to her. But it was the current Tonya in the doc who really got me - the one who was still all mad because Nancy refused to hug her, the one who called Nancy an ungrateful brat when Nancy called the Disneyland parade corny. Girl, at the very least, you helped cover up a crime committed against Nancy. I, too, would refuse to hug the person who helped cover up my assault. Also? you helped cover up her assault, if not more. You don't get to comment on how Nancy handled fame. Then she spent most of the doc complaining about how they took away everything skating-related from her and she couldn't build a career on it. Uh, yeah. Again, at the very least, you helped cover up the assault of a fellow skater. Never did she take responsibility for her actions.

I'm from Portland and there are a lot of mixed feelings about Tonya. My mom is a big fan because she is convinced that Tonya is just a misunderstood underdog and Nancy is a snob. Drives me nuts - Tonya may have started out as an underdog, but she could have made it if she focused and listened to the people trying to help her. Instead she repeatedly shot herself in the foot and then whined and blamed other people for it.

Best part of the doc? The way Paul Wiley was just not. Having. It. With Tonya.

I can't decide if I want to see the movie or not. It's not playing in the theater near me, making the decision fairly easy at the moment.

[Martini Girl]

I had no desire to see this, and then I kept hearing about Allison's performance. It's darkly funny. Tonya, Jeff, Shawn et al, are dumber than a box of rocks- if they submitted their resumes to the Trump WH, they'd probably be hired. The film is apparently based on interviews Jeff and Tonya gave, but at the beginning of the film, filmmakers note the interviews were ironical, and batsh*t insane.

They get one or two digs in at Nancy, but she's barely mentioned in the film. Janney steals the show. Filmmakers repeatedly point out Tonya never takes responsibility for anything.

[ratscabies]

How do they handle the Wedding Video?

[laurenj]

Dec 19, 2017 19:31:25 GMT -4 Martini Girl said:

I had no desire to see this, and then I kept hearing about Allison's performance. It's darkly funny. Tonya, Jeff, Shawn et al, are dumber than a box of rocks- if they submitted their resumes to the Trump WH, they'd probably be hired. The film is apparently based on interviews Jeff and Tonya gave, but at the beginning of the film, filmmakers note the interviews were ironical, and batsh*t insane.

They get one or two digs in at Nancy, but she's barely mentioned in the film. Janney steals the show. Filmmakers repeatedly point out Tonya never takes responsibility for anything.

The choice to end the trailer with Allison Janney snapping at a bird on her shoulder kinda sold me on the movie. I don't know why that made me laugh so hard, but I was really tickled by it.

I was squirmy when I first heard about this movie, and it still makes me uncomfortable. This actually happened, people need to remind themselves of that, and it wasn't all that long ago. Nancy Kerrigan was assaulted. If her attacker had been more accurate, he could have crushed her kneecap (he hit her on her thigh) and she could have been crippled for life. That doesn't seem like great fodder for comedy. Not judging anyone who goes to see it, you do you, but I'll be skipping it as well.

I am similarly squirmy about the subject matter, but I'll still see it. I feel that way about a lot of real-life dramatizations, like the OJ Simpson stuff.

[Mutagen]

Dec 19, 2017 17:21:30 GMT -4 @ximena said:

I was squirmy when I first heard about this movie, and it still makes me uncomfortable. This actually happened, people need to remind themselves of that, and it wasn't all that long ago. Nancy Kerrigan was assaulted. If her attacker had been more accurate, he could have crushed her kneecap (he hit her on her thigh) and she could have been crippled for life. That doesn't seem like great fodder for comedy. Not judging anyone who goes to see it, you do you, but I'll be skipping it as well.

These are my feelings. And I'm struck by the way that, at a time when we are having the national #MeToo conversation, we have an attempt at rehabilitation by someone who covered up if not participated in a violent assault. While of course the assault on Nancy Kerrigan did not have a sexual component, the idea that it should be downplayed because she was a princess/her reaction to the assault was a memetic joke/she turned out to be a bitch anyway/etc. is uncomfortably close to the rationale that some victims are "asking for it".

Edit - although I will add that my reaction is also mitigated somewhat if the movie truly does not try to portray Tonya in a particularly sympathetic light.