I, Tonya (2017) Feed And Activity

justjoia added their review for I, Tonya: Margot Robbie goes for gold in “I, Tonya” but falls short, much like Tonya Harding did in the ’94 Olympic games.(possible spoilers, but I mean, it’s history. )I was coming of age in the 90’s and you bet your ass I was glued to the TV when there was anything Tonya Harding related on it. She was a true Cinderella story, a poor white trash girl from who knows where with the most amazing raw iceskating talent, a mouth like a sailor, and chose to buck the norm and use the music she wanted to use all the way to the Olympics, not once, but twice. Her story was sensational enough before Nancy Kerrigan was assaulted.I watched the 30 for 30 “The Price of Gold” a year or so ago and “I, Tonya” does a great job mimicking that documentary in this mockumentary/docu-drama. I really enjoyed the similarities and Allison Janney stole the show with her performance as Tonya’s abusive and trashy mother LaVona Golden. If anyone in this film deserves an academy award, it’s Allison Janney! She nailed her performance and owned the role. She was more LaVona than the real LaVona. Her performance was so memorable that I would say anyone and everyone should see this film JUST to see her performance in this role.What I didn’t like, was the breaking of the 4th wall throughout the flashbacks/storytelling. If you already have your characters talking directly to the camera as they are telling the story, they shouldn’t be talking directly to the camera as they are SHOWING the story. It annoyed me and really turned me off. I was also highly disappointed with Margot Robbie’s performance. She produced this film as a blatant attempt to at least be nominated for an academy award. That’s cool and everything, but if you’re going to play an actual person, who has countless hours of footage, and countless photos, and is still alive, go all out and commit to the role! Robbie did not commit to this role like Nicole Kidman did in “The Hours” or Charlize Theron did in “Monster“. Those women, went all in and owned their roles and were rewarded with their golden statues. Robbie missed some opportunities in this role. I was really disappointed with her body. Margot Robbie has a beautiful and very slender body. She has a strikingly beautiful face. At no point did I get lost in the movie and believe her to be Tonya Harding. It was always, “wow, she’d doing a great job playing Tonya Harding”. It’s mentioned SEVERAL times throughout the movie that Tonya isn’t built like the other figure skaters, yet all we see is Robbie’s slender, flawless legs, not the muscular quads and hamstrings we all remember from the 90’s. I really feel that Robbie should have either gained 10-15 pounds or at the very least, worn some padding so she somewhat matched her figure skating double. There is even a (well known) line in the movie where she says she’s out of shape (and let me tell you, at NO POINT is Margot Robbie even remotely close to “out of shape” in this film) and her coach replies, “a pear is a shape”. I find it offensive to your audience to present a string bean and try and sell it as a pear. I know they make padding that could have been used and looked good. I feel Like Robbie really missed an opportunity by not completely committing to the role on the ice. Tonya Harding made some really interesting faces as she was concentrating on her performances. Margot Robbie was completely beautiful throughout every single ice skating performance in this film and didn’t bother to actually imitate the person she was playing. It was a disappointment and even more so at the end of the film when they show the real Tonya Harding making those faces on the ice. It was disappointing that she didn’t 100% commit to the role. I feel as though she didn’t want to “ugly” herself and she only wanted to present the beautiful and slender Margot Robbie without going full force with the frizzy hair and silly faces. This lack of commitment might have cost her the academy award, if not the nomination altogether.Teen Tonya and Jeff Gillooly should absolutely NOT have been played by Margot Robbie and Sebastian Stan. They should have used actual teens because neither one of them was believable as a teen.Figure skating costumes are far more modest than the costumes Robbie wore that showed way too much of her rear end. You would think that a costume designer in a major motion picture, about figure skating, would at the the very least, have considered consulting someone in the field. I was distracted by Margot Robbie’s uncovered ass every time she took the ice. Even now, in 2018, figure skaters wear leotards that cover their actual bottoms. I have no idea why she’s practically wearing a thong, when the rest of the costume design was on point. Other than the far too skimpy ice skating costumes, the costume designer predominately did a great job.I loved the movie overall. The skating footage was the best I have ever seen in a movie. Allison Janney was phenomenal and I feel it necessary to give kudos to Paul Walter Hauser as Shawn (the guy who hired the “hitman” who clubbed Nancy Kerrigan’s knee). He owned that role and completely nailed it. I enjoyed his performance almost as much as Janney’s.