I, Tonya | Film Review

Hey Guys x

This isn't nominated for 'Best Picture', but it is still nominated for a few Oscars, so it still counts as an Oscar review.

This film is about the true story of figure skater Tonya Harding. She was the first woman to complete a triple axel (a really hard skating move) during a competition, and at one point she was one of the most talked-about people in the world. However, one day her husband makes a decision that causes her figure skating legacy to be destroyed forever, as she is embroiled on one of the biggest scandals in history.

I thought this film was amazing.

The story itself was before my time, so I really didn't know that much about it. However, I've since looked it up and it is such an interesting story, and it looks like the film portrayed it so well!

It was filmed through a series of 'present day' interviews, and then the majority of the film is flashbacks, and I think this really works. Rather than just telling the story, we get to see interviews of how the older versions of the characters remember those events, which just made the film more interesting.

Another thing that they did really well was the way they spoke about 'the incident'. They assumed that the audience would already know what happened, so they didn't make it a surprise in any way. Even though the incident happened towards the end of the film, it was mentioned near the beginning and I really liked that. The incident shaped the rest of their lives, so it makes sense that it's one of the first things that they think about.

The acting was amazing.

Margot Robbie was incredible as Tonya, Allison Janney was incredible as her mother and Sebastian Stan was incredible as her husband. In fact, I feel like Sebastian should have been nominated for the supporting male Oscar, as Margot and Allison were also nominated, because he was the integral character to the plot (only a bit less integral than Tonya herself). But honestly, they're all amazing and the three of them carry the film so well.

The one bad thing I would say is that, I wasn't a particular fan of the fourth-wall breakage during the flashback scenes. There were some points when that kind of drew me out of the story. But because the story was so interesting, it was easy for me to get back into it.

Overall, this is such an interesting film. It is such an interesting, devastating event to begin with, and the film captures this beautifully. Go and see it! One of my favourite films of the year so far.

Lou xx