I, Tonya (Margot Robbie - Tonya Harding Bio)

Slydice · 01-11-2017 9:24pm #1

Starring Margot Robbie, Allison Janney, Sebastian Stan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Tonya

This is the green trailer.. there is a .. :eek: a red band trailer below

Red Band:

david75 · 05-12-2017 12:21am

Saw this tonight.
It’s really brilliant.
Robbie could be a serious contender for an Oscar. As could Alison Jenny in supporting actress.
It’s so hairbrained at parts and you’re winderin this can’t be real. Then they show you the actual interviews with the people involved over the end credits and it just amazes you the astounding stupidity of some people.
It’s really tragic in a lot of ways and celebratory too. She just wanted to skate. Like most super talented people she gets dragged down by those closest to her.

Treat yourself and see this. The first half hour alone is funnier and more upsetting than anything I’ve seen onscreen in a long time.

Autecher · 27-12-2017 10:14pm

I thought this was ok. It was definitely funnier than I thought it would be but I was also bored often while watching it. It was all very slight as biography movies mostly are imo. I also thought

the poor cgi used to put Margot Robbie's head on the real figure skater's body was strange & off putting

Looper007 · 28-12-2017 4:09am

It was a bit like David O. Russell wanting to be Martin Scorsese lite i.e American Hustle and Joy. I was waiting for his name to come up as I was so convinced it was him. But no it was Craig Gillespie, who directed some fine films like Lars and The Real Girl, Million Dollar Arm and The Finest Hours.

Overall, it's a decent watch that does overstay it's welcome with two great performances holding it together. Allison Janney as Tonya's Mother is a Oscar chewing role and she's very good, but Margot Robbie is fantastic as Tonya, they definitely don't shy away from her bad side but they do put across like she was the victim in it all. I'm not too sure I buy into Tonya been entirely innocent but the film does put that across. I always know Robbie was more then a pretty face, she does have her fair share of playing the Girlfriend or Wife role on her C.V, and her hit and miss rate is really off then on. But she's excellent in this and I wouldn't be shocked if she got a Oscar Nom at the most.

It does surprisingly enough lose it's way a bit when it gets to the Kerrigan incident, it's the least interesting part of the film for me. And I do agree with poster above me saying that CGI used is real bad. But it has a killer soundtrack (one of the best I've heard in a while) and is a enjoyable watch overall. 6/10

yerwanthere123 · 02-01-2018 4:17am

Watched this tonight, loved it. Alison Janney was just terrific as the demented mother.

06-01-2018 11:38am

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Watched this tonight, loved it. Alison Janney was just terrific as the demented mother.

You think during the film that the parrot must be dramatic license, but no!

yerwanthere123 · 06-01-2018 1:35pm

Deleted User wrote: »

You think during the film that the parrot must be dramatic license, but no!

"Can you not swear in front of the kid's, please?"

"I didn't swear, you c*nt"

:pac:

krustydoyle · 06-01-2018 3:20pm

Watched it a few days ago..

Some brilliant performances in it..
Has Emma Stone a good chance of the Oscar??

Cantona's Collars · 08-01-2018 12:37pm

Some excellent performances,talk about a disfunctional family and relationships.

The guy who plays the 'bodyguard' is the spit of the lad in real life who actually died aged 40. Considering the portrayal of his non stop eating in the movie I'm not surprised if that was the way he lived in reality.
It's come out recently that she admitted to knowing something about the plot.

Ralf and Florian · 08-01-2018 1:20pm

I remember that case well from the time, there was a big media frenzy around it. About the same time as yer wan who cut her husbands mickey off. Theres a film waiting to be made.

recyclops · 08-01-2018 11:38pm

While the performances of Robbie and Janney were great overall I was disappointed, they managed to take a great story and make it boring and as stated above cgi was poor.

If interested in the story your better off finding the espn 30 for 30 documentary, the price of gold. Just an overall better telling of the story, pretty much the same interviews too.

ben.schlomo · 08-01-2018 11:43pm

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Two excellent performances by the two ladies.

marklazarcovic · 11-01-2018 11:47pm

Two oscar worthy performances imo

tigger123 · 12-01-2018 9:15am

Haven't seen it.

I saw the 30/30 documentary on the whole debacle a few years ago and was shocked to see Tonya Harding at the Golden Globes though, given that she was part of a plot to break a competitors legs. And she's now a bit of a hero (?)

I heard an interview a few days ago with winter olympics journalist who covered it all in great depth at the time and she's of the opinion that this film is playing very fast and loose with the truth.

Doesn't mean it's not a good movie, but I think there may be doubts about it's accuracy.

JP Liz V1 · 13-01-2018 2:43am

I'd say Janney is a lock for the Oscar

Wombatman · 13-01-2018 1:30pm

Excellent movie. Went a little too easy on Harding herself but they told the story they set out to tell very well. Robbie well ahead of McDormand, Ronan, Hawkins for actress in a leading role for me. Janney should be a lock too.

sporina · 03-02-2018 11:57pm

watched this tonight and lovvvvved it - the two leading ladies were unreal (wow what a bitch was the Mum?!)
Anyway I have a Q - i took it that Sean planned the whole thing against nancy ie the knee breaking and that as far as Jeff knew, she was just gonna get a letter ie death threat... or did Jeff know about the knee breaking?
In any even Sean admitted that he sent Tonya the initial death threat - so alluding that he was conspiring the whole thing - so why didn't that come out?
I am unclear as to how much of a role Jeff had in it all and so why did he go down for as long as he did?

Also, Tonya seemed to play v little role in any of it, so why was she fined and given community service and banned from all skating??

I hope someone with more insight than me can shed some light - thanks..

In any event I loved it - and loved the way it was shot.. the interviews were class - almost comical in places... but still being able to get the real sense of emotion through.. (let it be anger or what ever)

Telecaster58 · 05-02-2018 11:33pm

Saw it tonight as part of Screen Unseen in the Odeon.
Absolutely hilarious, from start to finish. The bozos she was surrounded by were like criminal Keystone Cops. If the story was fiction you couldn't have got away with using characters like that. To realise they were actual people makes it even funnier.
Great film.

sporina · 06-02-2018 9:44am

Wombatman wrote: »

Excellent movie. Went a little too easy on Harding herself but they told the story they set out to tell very well. Robbie well ahead of McDormand, Ronan, Hawkins for actress in a leading role for me. Janney should be a lock too.

Janney isn't nominated for leading role as far as I can see?

Loved I Tonya but nope still preferred McDormand to Robbie,.. not seen The Shape of water yet but if Maudie is anything to go by, Hawkins is competition for sure - incredible actress.

Telecaster58 · 06-02-2018 10:53am

sporina wrote: »

Janney isn't nominated for leading role as far as I can see?

Loved I Tonya but nope still preferred McDormand to Robbie,.. not seen The Shape of water yet but if Maudie is anything to go by, Hawkins is competition for sure - incredible actress.

I saw it. No chance Hawkins will get it. She doesn't speak! The Academy loves a role where someone is disabled, but not that disabled! In the Miracle Worker, Anne Bancroft got the Oscar but Patti Duke, who played Helen Keller didn't. It's true that in Children of a Lesser God Marlee Matlin got the Oscar, but she was deaf, not dumb. In The Artist Genevieve Bujo left empty-handed.

Addle · 25-02-2018 5:15pm

Haven't seen ladybird yet, but I'd rate I,Tonya ahead of 3 billboards.
Best film I've seen in a while.

Hrududu · 25-02-2018 6:02pm

I enjoyed it but there were some things that weren't clear. It seemed like you needed to know the story already to understand some things.

For instance after the incident Tonya is on the phone to Jeff and she tells him that the guy broke Nancy Kerrigan's knee. But then in a matter of weeks Kerrigan is back on the ice. And about a month after the incident she's competing in the olympics.

So was Tonya wrong and the injury wasn't that severe? Or did Kerrigan recover very quickly? There were just a couple of moments like that where it was kind of assumed we already know certain details so they just left them out of the film

Something else that was a bit off was where Tonya broke the 4th wall to castigate the audience for turning her into a punchline. But that assumes that the audience were around at that time and were joking about her. If you are new to the story it makes no sense.

I enjoyed it and thought any other year Margot Robbie would be a shoe in for the Oscar. But I think Frances McDormand will probably take it home.

Dream role for Alison Janney too.

DavidLyons_ · 25-02-2018 9:40pm

A far superior and entertaining film than all the other "Oscar bait" stuff that's being mooted for awards.

A very fine, fun film unlike all the other bang average stuff we're being told to revere - Shape of Water, Darkest Hour, Three Billboards, Lady Bird and the vile The Post etc.

david75 · 25-02-2018 9:52pm

DavidLyons_ wrote: »

A far superior and entertaining film than all the other "Oscar bait" stuff that's being mooted for awards.

A very fine, fun film unlike all the other bang average stuff we're being told to revere - Shape of Water, Darkest Hour, Three Billboards, Lady Bird and the vile The Post etc.

Can’t argue with any of that. It is a better film with better performances certainly better than ladybird or shape of water.
It’s probably a bit too real people and ‘grotty’ for the academy though sadly.
Robbie and Janney both deserve Oscars.

johnny_ultimate · 25-02-2018 10:46pm

It's a solid film, with some good performances and an endearing playfulness about it. It's let down by uninspired delivery, though. Gillespie channels the likes of David O Russell and Martin Scorsese but doesn't have the imagination of either (and it's hardly like David O Russell films have been total successes either). The music cues are a case in point - they're insipid, obvious choices that were over-familiar decades ago in some cases. Scorsese films soar thanks to deep cuts - this has no shortage of familiar pop & rock hits, and they drag it down. I couldn't shake the overall sense that a lot of what it was trying to do stylistically I'd seen a lot before with more verve.

An enjoyable evening's watch, that's pacy as **** if nothing else. It definitely marks a significant step forward for Robbie too, although she has been cursed with some thankless roles in the past. But like a few scenes in the film itself, the film itself doesn't quite land all the tricks it wants to

S.M.B. · 25-02-2018 11:26pm

^ pretty close to my thoughts on the movie

delbertgrady · 26-02-2018 9:26am

It probably needs to shed about fifteen minutes of its running time, but I was very impressed with it overall. It's a career-transforming turn from Margot Robbie, and Allison Janney is superb, and in my opinion, easily wins this year's Oscar battle for Best Supporting Mom Actress.
The narrative device of the conflicting sides of the story is very effective, and the energy and pace of the film is such that I can forgive the fact that most of it has been done before (the split screen psychiatrist couch scene in Annie Hall, Ray Liotta breaking the fourth wall in the courtroom in GoodFellas).
I would agree to an extent about the music cues, but attitudes towards them are hardly universal. Barracuda and 25 or 6 to 4 are hardly over-familiar to the average audience over here. The only ones that really struck me as being ridiculously ill-chosen for their oh so obvious predictability were Romeo and Juliet, and - to a slightly lesser extent - The Chain. The competitive skate with the use of Sleeping Bag was my favourite sequence in the film.

p to the e · 27-02-2018 4:25pm

I'm never a fan of awards being handed out so easily to people who have so much source material to work off of. However, I suspect Janney is a shoe in to win.

I enjoyed the film over all and felt it was a good idea to give everyone's side of the story and let the audience decide. However, as someone mentioned above, I felt that it definitely painted Tonya as more of a victim than I reckon she was. I've also read some criticisms about how such a serious storyline (physical and psychological abuse, assault) was played down for laughs which may have some rings of truth to it.

Some musings:

Kerrigan didn't break her knee as was thought at the time but bruised it.
I wonder why the whole Tonya Harding sex tape fiasco was never mentioned?
Kerrigan's carefully crafted media darling image began to turn after her sour puss face (from "only" winning silver) and also that she did not attend the closing ceremony of the games.
Sean "the fatty" Eckhardt died in 2007 which is a pity as I'd say he would have loved 4Chan. Here's some film of the international spy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV8gyTEKG3A

metaoblivia · 27-02-2018 7:14pm

Fantastic movie - one of my favorites of the season, and I'm not usually a fan of Margot Robbie.
I was 12 when this all happened, an competitive gymnast and a big skating fan. I remember parts of it vividly. Tonya Harding is a very complicated person, and I think the film did a great job in showing that. A few things I liked:

They subtly showed how obsessed Tonya Harding was and still is with Nancy Kerrigan. Nancy has moved on, but Tonya still has trouble keeping Nancy's name out of her mouth almost 25 years later. No matter what you think of Kerrigan, the fact is she didn't do anything to Tonya except show up and skate better, especially in the 93-94 season when Harding wasn't training hard enough to land the one thing she had over Kerrigan, which were her jumps.

They caught the craziness of Tonya's mother. Tonya had so much athletic talent, but she learned so much self-destructive behavior from that witch of a mother that it destroyed her skating career. My favorite part of the film was when

Tonya was skating and her mother was waitressing in the restaurant and wouldn't serve the patrons until she saw Tonya skate because she wanted to see the look in Tonya's eyes when she finished that great skate. I thought that scene was absolutely brilliant. Yes, her mother was awful, but that awfulness came from a place of wanting to see her child succeed.

What I didn't remember from my childhood was just how stupid the guys involved in the plan were. That was a revelation and utterly delightful to see on film.

The film was a little nice to Tonya, but I think it also showed some of her flaws as well. Anyway, it was fantastic and Allison Janney deserves an Oscar.

Roar · 02-03-2018 9:46am

Enjoyed it well enough. Janney was the standout, she was magnificent. Robbie was brilliant as well.

Agree above about some of the song choices, Romeo and Juliet was particularly on the nose.

pixelburp · 05-03-2018 12:24pm

A film that coasted almost entirely on the charisma of its leads, coupled with the natural eccentricity of the story itself; there was an air of the Coen Brothers about the whole escapade, not least the thread of incompetent criminals quickly finding themselves in over their (empty) heads. The actual execution though was strangely half-hearted: the framing device of multiple unreliable narrators never quite committing itself to that particularly conceit, instead feeling a bit scattershot and slapped together - almost as if there were a couple of competing directors at the helm. Ropey FX also undermined the actual skating scenes, reminding me a little of other sports films with unconvincing green-screen scenes such as Invictus. Still though, as mentioned it was saved by the charisma and weight of performances, the most obvious being Robbie and Janney as the two Harding women; the former probably giving her career a well-deserved kick in the pants, after some questionable choices.

I, Tonya (Margot Robbie - Tonya Harding Bio)

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