For centuries, audiences have had a certain obsession with artistic representations of true stories, reenacting historical moments and real-life events in a way that shows the inherent tragedy or historical significance that captivates us and keeps us thirsting for more. It has persisted from the earliest days of theatre to the present day, when audiences are bombarded with countless films about true-life figures at an alarming rate. These films range from the inspiring and motivation to the bleak and tragic, being platforms for the stories of a variety of individuals, with the film being adapted tonally to match the nature of the individual or event being conveyed. However, having said this, it becomes clear that there are some true-life events, and some real-world individuals, that are so complex, demented and twisted, they are only worthy of the most insanely acidic and sardonic dark comedies, and Tonya Harding and her fall from grace is one such instance of only the most hilariously deranged film being able to do her and her shockingly disturbing story justice. I, Tonya is a film I have been anticipating since it was announced, and it certainly did not disappoint. It may believe itself to be a lot smarter than it actually is, and it may have some awfully obvious weak points, but for all of its faults,  I, Tonya is an effective film that works as both a retelling of the life, career and fall from grace of Tonya Harding, as well as being a subversive commentary on fame and public figures. I, Tonya may have its flaws and it may never reach the heights that it could have very easily achieved, but I’ll be a fool if I said it was anything other than a charming, hilarious and brilliant piece of black comedy.

In the sports world (as well as in the world of celebrity in general) Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie) was quite an individual. A self-professed redneck, the victim of a relentlessly abusive mother LaVona (Allison Janney), she took the world by storm when it was discovered that she has a penchant for figure skating, and is capable of feats that very few of her contemporaries have been able to achieve, feats that thrust her directly into the spotlight and take her all over the world as she rises in status. Throughout the course of the film (or at least its first act), Tonya rises from a small-town “white trash” amateur, dismissed by judges for her poor attire (a result of her working-class background never allowing her to live a life of luxury, whether in childhood or in her adult years), to an Olympic figure skater who ascends to a position as one of the most famous athletes in the world. Going with her along the way is her boyfriend and later husband, Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan), who proves to occupy two radically different roles in Tonya’s life, being her passionate lover as well as her violent abuser, often serving both roles in equal measures. On the ice-rink, Tonya is a towering champion of figure skating, but behind closed doors, she is a broken, paranoid and insecure victim who only wanted to do what she knew – skate, which was simply not good enough for her mother, or Jeff, or anyone else. Bitterness and jealousy get the better of the couple, and Jeff and Tonya become embroiled in a plot to threaten one of Tonya’s colleagues and competitors, Nancy Kerrigan (Caitlin Carver) after a supposed death threat directed to Tonya arouses suspicion. What was supposed to be minor intimidation (or as minor as a death threat could be) results in an attack that disables Nancy, which gives Tonya the much-needed boost she needs as a figure skater, but also thrusts her and Jeff into the spotlight when they become associated with the incident (as a result of one of Jeff’s friends and Tonya’s supposed bodyguard, not being able to hide his own admissions of guilt). Tonya then experiences a spectacular fall from grace, going from a beloved, patriotic athlete to one of the most hated in sports history, and the film follows her as she declines and how the media circus that surrounds her keeps her in that spotlight she adored so much, but for the wrong reasons entirely.

Despite becoming one of the most endearing actresses of her generation, I have never truly been impressed by Margot Robbie in the way that many others have been. She was great in The Wolf of Wall Street (even if her role lacked any complexity other than being a love-interest to the hedonistic titular character), and one of the saving graces of the earth-shakingly awful Suicide Squad. She has usually been serviceable and relatively good in all of her performances, but has yet to win me over and fully astonish me. She showed great promise as the titular character in I, Tonya, and gives what cannot be denied as her finest performance yet as the disgraced figure skater who has an inspiring rise to fame and a grotesque fall from grace. Robbie disappears entirely into this role, playing Harding from a teenager to a middle-aged pariah, showing her meteoric rise and tragic downfall throughout the film, being consistently excellent. Robbie is able to find the pathos in the character, being able to play with the role enough and adapt it in order to show us a new side to Harding, conveying the fact that despite the scandal that caused her to become a truly hated individual, she is also a human, perhaps tragically human, and her own mistakes are not indicative of who she really is, and her past actions should not define her future (as the ending credits state, Harding insisted that the audience knows that she is a good mother, perhaps indicating some commentary on her own upbringing, as well as Harding’s own desperate attempt to regain some respect as a person in some way). Robbie is terrific in I, Tonya, showing both the outrageous, larger-than-life champion, as well as the damaged, fragile and insecure individual who set out to accomplish her dream and came very close to achieving it. Robbie’s portrayal of Harding was not entirely sympathetic (in fact, it was quite harsh at some points), but it was nuanced and delicate. The cadences Robbie brought to the role was truly wonderful and allows the audience to grow to have a very troubling relationship with Tonya, going from outright mocking her to sympathizing with her. Part of this is due to the tremendous script, part of it is due to Robbie’s committed portrayal of Harding, and the result is a fantastic performance that is the best of the actress’ career so far.

The role of Jeff Gillooly I, Tonya was a tricky one for any actor, because it required an actor who could believably be a passionate, loving husband as well as a vicious, violent abuser. It needed a performer who could construct a truly horrific monster of a character who is not entirely malicious, but far from being admirable in any way, and sometimes even is goofy and somewhat adorable, which juxtaposes how despicable of a character he actually was. Sebastian Stan achieves the annual feat of an actor previously dismissed as being one-note (mainly through his work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as young adult television shows) who shows considerable depth when given an interesting character to play, allowing the audience to see some concept of versatility in the performer. Stan is most certainly the best part of I, Tonya, playing Jeff as a sleazy but charismatic idiot who gets himself and his wife into trouble neither was prepared for. As the character played by Bobby Cannavale states, this story is occupied almost entirely by “boobs”, and Stan’s character is quite possibly the most idiotic of them all, yet he is capable of an intense, rage-filled charm that makes him quite an unconventional villain (if we can consider him a villain, which would be to suggest that there are heroes in I, Tonya, which is not true). This is great work from Stan, who is proving himself to be far more versatile as an actor than some of his more notable roles. I, Tonya may be sold almost entirely on Robbie and her incredible performance as Harding, but it is Stan and his relentlessly powerful performance as Jeff that anchors this film.

There are just some performers so consistently magnificent in every role, it becomes second-nature to adore them. One such performer is the tremendously charismatic Allison Janney, one of the first actresses I remember admiring, right from her early days in The West Wing, right up until the present day, where she consistently makes one earnestly laugh as well as emotionally moving audiences with her complex performance of a flawed woman in Mom. However, it is in cinema that I feel Janney has made her most significant strides, particularly as a reliable character actress across a variety of roles. Independent cinema has been exceedingly kind to Janney, being able to pander to her sensibilities and unique talents as an actress, and whether it is in a small supporting role or in a major performance pivotal to the film, Janney is consistently excellent. However,  I, Tonya is one of Janney’s most fascinating performances to date (I am reluctant to say it is one of her best because she has been tremendous in many other films). Playing the abusive mother of Tonya Harding, Janney is able to actually have fun with the character, portraying a foul-mouthed, hilarious villain of a woman who serves as a malevolent antagonist over her daughter and motivates her in many ways, even if such motivations are indirect and unintentional. Janney finds the humanity in the character, without allowing the audience to feel the same sympathy as they well towards Tonya. LaVona was a despicable woman, but she was not entirely malicious, and this film presents her as a harsh and unloving woman who still somehow allows her daughter to pursue her dream, and manages to be supportive, albeit in a manner that is most certainly less than ideal. It is odd when the audience finds the humanity in such a despicable character, but it speaks to the generous and honest nature of the film, constructing characters that may be outrageous, but also deeply realistic and complex. Janney’s performance is slightly more nuanced than simply being a foul-mouthed, abusive mother, but in the end, more than anything else, it is just a tremendously entertaining performance from a great actress.

Craig Gillespie has had an odd career, to say the least, directing some notable, but not entirely excellent, films over the course of his career. One such film was Lars and the Real Girl, a film similar to I, Tonya in the way that it approaches its slightly distressing story through a playful lens of dark comedy. You’ll probably recall that I disliked Lars and the Real Girl tremendously, and found it misguided, saccharine and dull beyond belief. Luckily, Gillespie seems to have shown his capacity to make something special with I, Tonya, a film that soars as a dark comedy and effectively tells the story in a way that feels so absurd and ridiculous, yet so tremendously authentic at the same time (the same can be said of Gillespie’s remake of Fright Night, a horror film much smarter than one would expect). I, Tonya is made in a way that isn’t entirely innovative but is also not quite conventional. Some have (troublingly) compared it to the films of Christopher Guest (but it lacks the spontaneous humanitarianism of Guest’s films) as well as those of David O. Russell (where it lacks the melancholic misanthropy that Russell does so well), and while the narrative shifts felt slightly jarring (combining mockumentary-style interviews with fourth-wall-breaking commentary feels overstuffed), but it all worked somehow, creating a film that was as hilarious and subversive as its true-life subject. I honestly cannot imagine a more accurate way to portray the story of Tonya Harding other than through an outrageous dark comedy.

However, Gillespie, despite helming the film extremely well and creating an unforgettably hilarious cinematic experience, is only partly responsible for the success of the film, with the majority of acclaim belonging to Steven Rogers, who wrote the screenplay. Through his meticulous research, Rogers explored the scandalous events and the lives of the major figures and managed to uncover several relentless truths that are simultaneously hilarious and larger-than-life outrageous, while also being extremely heartbreaking and quite serious in what it has to say. Beneath the flamboyant dark comedy of I, Tonya, there lurks a very serious message, a piece of social commentary that strikes the audience extremely harshly. I, Tonya is not a film only about the downfall of Tonya Harding, it is a direct meditation on the concept of celebrity. There is a particularly moving moment towards the end of the film where present-day Tonya (in one of the talking head interviews) very seriously notes how the abuse was not limited to the physical attacks inflicted on her by her mother or her husband, but also by the public. There is something about a character, based on a real-life figure, looking directly at the audience, stating very boldly “you were all my attackers” that hits particularly hard. Rogers was not particularly kind in his portrayal of these characters – even the prologue states that what this film is based on are  “irony-free, wildly contradictory” testimonies from the major figures, and Rogers does nothing to soften the outrageous nature of these people, yet he still manages to find the humanity in the scandal and forces the audience to empathize with Tonya. I did not think I’d ever sit in a cinema and feel sympathy for someone like Tonya Harding, but even though he does not handle the subject with kid gloves, Rogers shows a far more complex side to this story, and it is absolutely terrific and a remarkably resonant moment in an otherwise implausibly twisted and gaudy film.

I, Tonya is a lovable film, which is odd considering the troubling story at its core. Craig Gillespie created a wonderful film, one filled with nuances and innovative filmmaking that worked well in adapting Steven Rogers’ terrific script. Margot Robbie leads this film incredibly well and is supported by tremendous performances from Sebastian Stan and Allison Janney. I, Tonya is far more complex than it seems, and it has a strong sense of realistic exaggeration of character which allows it to take the story to some flamboyant, extravagant places without becoming a parody. I, Tonya is a great film, a film that is rough around the edges, but rather than hide these flaws, it wholly embraces them. A film that operates as both an outrageous, hilarious and bitterly-dark black comedy, while also being a serious commentary on celebrity culture and how an individual has their life shapen by the perception of others, which is amplified when the individual is someone in the public eye. I, Tonya is an extremely fun film, but the grave nature of the message is not lost in this film’s pursuit to be entertaining and results in a subversive, darkly comical and ultimately tragic story about fame and corruption.