Francesca’s Film Recommendation: I, Tonya

I, Tonya. How do I even begin to explain I, Tonya? I, Tonya is flawless. I am no stranger to seeing a movie alone and every time I saw I, Tonya I was by myself. It frustrated because I wanted to talk about this movie with someone who had seen it. It blew me away each time I saw it. Everything from the acting to the costumes is so spot on. I ended up rewatching some old Tonya Harding videos to compare Margot’s performance.

If you haven’t seen it, I, Tonya follows the story of Tonya Harding’s (Margot Robbie) early life through her career as a figure skater, ultimately ending with the 1994 Nancy Kerrigan scandal. Viewers get a glimpse into her rocky childhood with her mother (Allison Janney) and her tumultuous relationship with her now ex-husband Jeff Gilooly (Sebastian Stan).

One of my biggest takeaways from the film was the idea of Tonya being a misunderstood character. Growing up I heard about the incident with Nancy Kerrigan. The assumption was that Tonya was the villain and Nancy was the victim. I had no idea who Jeff was until I got older and actually learned more about the story. Finally, when the movie came out I learned that Jeff had orchestrated it. She definitely overheard some talk about it but didn’t actually commit the act. I saw Tonya Harding in a new light and I think that’s so important when it comes to storytelling.

If you’re reading this and you know me personally then you might remember my anger when it didn’t get the Oscar attention I think it deserved. This isn’t a rant so I digress. This is definitely one of my favorite biopic films and if you haven’t checked it out yet I really urge you to do so. As always stay up to date on everything film related on our Twitter and Instagram! Oh, and bonus points to you if you got my Mean Girls reference in the first three sentences.