I, Tonya

[Harriet]

in the clip they showed, Margot sounded just like she did when she was in "Neighbours"! Now, given that Tonya has a very distinctive voice, it is going to be very surreal hearing "her" talk with an Aussie accent...

Trust me, there is nothing remotely Australian about the accent she uses in the film. She does use two variations on a regional US accent - one for the skating-era Tonya and one for the older, interview-era Tonya - but they are definitely regional US accents or at least a solid attempt at them.

I found the film fascinating, less for the skating aspect of it (interesting though that is in its own terms) than for its discussion of overt narratorial unreliability and use of fourth-wall breakage to underscore its own inability/refusal to present, or even aspire to asserting, some form of truth. It's in blatant defiance of the film medium's assumption of verisimilitude, and it was really effective. The scene that sticks in my mind most of all is the one shortly before (IIRC?) the Olympics skate, with Tonya in front of a mirror with her makeup half-on and so garishly stark under the mirror lights that it looked clownish, smiling to the point of grimacing and all but breaking down. It was brutal, and very well done. The whole film also has a lot to say about the intersections of poverty, class, education/lack thereof, gender, ambition, fame and money in the US, and it's not so much asserting any of them as a truth about Tonya Harding or figure skating as a whole as it is using one very well-known story that happens to include both as a hook to hang the analysis on.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting from Alison Janney's performance based on reviews etc, but I thought she gave a phenomenally restrained performance - there are moments where all of LaVona's monstrosity, and also all of her humanity, come through in her utter lack of emotional reaction to things you expect to see a reaction to and the hints as to why that lack of reaction is there. There's one crucial scene where not only the audience but Tonya can tell that something isn't what it seems purely because that lack of emotional reaction isn't present. It's played that LaVona's emotional reaction is the one thing Tonya has ever really wanted and needed in her life, it comes at the one moment when she most needs it, and it's the biggest betrayal of all. Really great storytelling both in the script and in the performance.

In a weird way, though, I also found the film very Australian and could see what got Margot Robbie attracted to it and involved in it. We have a huge history of criminal-as-ambiguous-antihero narratives here, going right the way from the Kelly Gang and Ben Hall all the way up to Chopper and the various Underbelly miniseries, and with the exception of it focusing on a woman and refusing to either glorify or minimise violence, either that experienced or that committed, I, Tonya very much fits in the trend!

 

[Amer]

Finally saw this yesterday. Loved it.
I had a HUGE smile on my face during the 1992 Albertville scene showing the flower girls in their ‘Teletubbies’ outfits.
Great attention to detail

 

[Ladskater]

I saw this movie about a week ago. Pretty timely with the Olympics. I thought it was well done. Probably some things were a little exaggerated. The skating was good. I wonder what Tonya thought today when Mirai Nagasu nailed a perfect triple Axel!

 

[fenway3]

Apparently even Kristi Yamaguchi has seen the movie now, and here's what she had to say:

"The acting was great in it, and I applaud Margot Robbie. I was so impressed with her skating. I enjoyed it, but I just took it with a grain of salt, knowing that there's artistic license and whatnot."

I'm not quite sure what she means by the last part, though.

 

[Imagine]

Apparently even Kristi Yamaguchi has seen the movie now, and here's what she had to say:

"The acting was great in it, and I applaud Margot Robbie. I was so impressed with her skating. I enjoyed it, but I just took it with a grain of salt, knowing that there's artistic license and whatnot."

I'm not quite sure what she means by the last part, though.

She’s great! Love the unintentional shade!

 

[Inessence]

Yeah, except we all saw her reckoning face after Tonya landed hers at ‘91 Nats.

 

[brightphoton]

Imdb reporter gets skating lesson from Margot Robbie's skating coach

http://www.imdb.com/list/ls025849840/videoplayer/vi3420305433

 

[OS]

Robbie and Janney Interview on Graham Norton with BBC. Quite impressed with some of her improv.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09rjs9g/the-graham-norton-show-series-22-episode-18

Jenney won best Supporting Actress at the Bafta (British Oscar) last night. Robbie Nominated.

 

[mrrice]

Allison Janney won another award for her role as Tonya's Mother. I have never heard of the BAFTA Awards but, she won for her role in I Tonya. https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/awards/2018-bafta-awards-winners/ss-BBJiUuw?ocid=spartanntp#image=5

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

The good news is that "I, Tonya" gets released in the UK tomorrow!!!

The bad news is that, after doing extensive digging, it seems that only 4 cinemas in Northern Ireland are showing it.

And 3 of them are in Belfast!!!

So, it seems that somebody has decided that us "culchies" (what people from Belfast call people from outside Belfast) wouldn't be interested in a figure skating film. (Erm, 3 of the top skaters that have come from NI would fall into that category, including an 11 time British champion!)

The only cinema outside of Belfast that is showing "I, Tonya" is at the Jet Centre in Coleraine. Which is highly ironic, as this is the cinema that replaced the only ice rink in Northern Ireland outside of Belfast!

So, a trip to Coleraine next week it is!

You know, the last time I was in the Jet Centre was the first (and last) time I was on the ice. So, this could be a strange experience...

CaroLiza_fan

 

[skatedreamer]

Allison Janney won another award for her role as Tonya's Mother. I have never heard of the BAFTA Awards but, she won for her role in I Tonya. https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/awards/2018-bafta-awards-winners/ss-BBJiUuw?ocid=spartanntp#image=5

BAFTA = British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In Britain, BAFTA awards are equivalent to the US Oscars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Academy_Film_Awards

 

[moonvine]

I'm going to have to wait for DVD. Argh!

 

[skateluvr]

She’s great! Love the unintentional shade!

She should have said the movie is fiction regarding the whack and she knows Tonya very well indeed as well as admiring her dear friend Nancy. Kristi is a pc as it gets. Never liked that about her.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Just popping in to let the UK members know a couple of things.

Firstly, when I was looking for the Olympic Short Dance in the On Demand service on Sky, I discovered that "I, Tonya" has appeared as a "Buy and Keep" Pre-Order on Sky Store. Here are the prices:

HD Digital - £9.99
HD Digital and DVD - £13.99
HD Digital and Blu Ray- £16.99

(Seems a bit steep to me...)

HOWEVER, they do not say when it will be available!

I've never used the Sky Store before, so I don't know how long it takes for films to transfer from it to the linear Movie channels.

Secondly, BT Sport 1 is showing "The Price Of Gold" again at 13:00 GMT today, so 30 minutes from now.

But, I won't be watching it. Partly because I have seen it already. But mainly because I will be busy getting ready to head off to Coleraine this afternoon to see "I, Tonya" in the cinema before this "Beast From The East" arrives with their bad weather!

Can't wait!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[Erin9]

Apparently even Kristi Yamaguchi has seen the movie now, and here's what she had to say:

"The acting was great in it, and I applaud Margot Robbie. I was so impressed with her skating. I enjoyed it, but I just took it with a grain of salt, knowing that there's artistic license and whatnot."

I'm not quite sure what she means by the last part, though.

I think she’s saying she knows that the movie isn’t historically accurate. It’s not a documentary, and she knows they were trying to make a movie that would be interesting for people to watch-not accurate.

 

[Metis]

Trust me, there is nothing remotely Australian about the accent she uses in the film. She does use two variations on a regional US accent - one for the skating-era Tonya and one for the older, interview-era Tonya - but they are definitely regional US accents or at least a solid attempt at them.

I found the film fascinating, less for the skating aspect of it (interesting though that is in its own terms) than for its discussion of overt narratorial unreliability and use of fourth-wall breakage to underscore its own inability/refusal to present, or even aspire to asserting, some form of truth. It's in blatant defiance of the film medium's assumption of verisimilitude, and it was really effective. The scene that sticks in my mind most of all is the one shortly before (IIRC?) the Olympics skate, with Tonya in front of a mirror with her makeup half-on and so garishly stark under the mirror lights that it looked clownish, smiling to the point of grimacing and all but breaking down. It was brutal, and very well done. The whole film also has a lot to say about the intersections of poverty, class, education/lack thereof, gender, ambition, fame and money in the US, and it's not so much asserting any of them as a truth about Tonya Harding or figure skating as a whole as it is using one very well-known story that happens to include both as a hook to hang the analysis on.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting from Alison Janney's performance based on reviews etc, but I thought she gave a phenomenally restrained performance - there are moments where all of LaVona's monstrosity, and also all of her humanity, come through in her utter lack of emotional reaction to things you expect to see a reaction to and the hints as to why that lack of reaction is there. There's one crucial scene where not only the audience but Tonya can tell that something isn't what it seems purely because that lack of emotional reaction isn't present. It's played that LaVona's emotional reaction is the one thing Tonya has ever really wanted and needed in her life, it comes at the one moment when she most needs it, and it's the biggest betrayal of all. Really great storytelling both in the script and in the performance.

In a weird way, though, I also found the film very Australian and could see what got Margot Robbie attracted to it and involved in it. We have a huge history of criminal-as-ambiguous-antihero narratives here, going right the way from the Kelly Gang and Ben Hall all the way up to Chopper and the various Underbelly miniseries, and with the exception of it focusing on a woman and refusing to either glorify or minimise violence, either that experienced or that committed, I, Tonya very much fits in the trend!

If films didn’t make me sick... [emoji36] Thanks for the great write up. I’ll have to try to watch this when it’s out on DVD/available for streaming.

If you haven’t seen ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary on the subject, it covers the many of the same issues — class, abuse, gender norms, how skating became a way to fame and money.... It’s surprisingly nuanced (less concerned with the “whodunnit” and re-examining our understanding of what the “it” and “who” was, though while never explicitly stating an opinion, the documentary’s director heavily implies what she thinks the conclusion is), and made me research that era and revisit what I (thought) I knew.

Also, this essay sounds like it’d be a good companion piece to the film. One of my favorites. Less about Tonya and Nancy themselves, perhaps, than a feminist examination of figure skating using their myth as the vehicle.

 

[NoNameFace]

it's released on March 2nd in Poland, I am going with one of my teammates next week

 

[yelyoh]

I'm going to have to wait for DVD. Argh!

About to come out on Netflix. Get in line : )

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Right, saw the film yesterday, and wanted to share my thoughts.

But, before we get to the cinema, I just want to say what a strange journey it was up there! Coleraine is about 40 miles from where I live. Yet within that journey, there were 3 times where we were driving through what can only be described as small blizzards, and clear blue skies in between. So surreal.

This was the first time I had been to the Jet Centre in about 15 years, and it looked exactly the same on the outside. But when you went inside, it was totally different.

The cinema is to your right when you go in. We had ordered our tickets online because we were worried about heading all the way down there only to find that there were no seats. There were machines there to print out your actual tickets, but neither my Mum nor I could get them to work for us, and one of the staff had to do it! (Touchscreens never did like me, and it seems like they don’t like my Mum either!)

We went into claim some seats about 15 minutes before it was due to start. But, we needn’t have worried – there were only 2 other people already seated. And we sat directly in front of them (the seats they were in would have been the ones that I would have ideally wanted to sit in. But hey!)

I have to say, I was surprised that the screen we were in (Screen 3) was actually smaller than any of the screens in the cinema in my home town. There were only about 200 seats. And even the smallest screen at home (the original screen before they built an extension to became a multiplex) has more seats than that. Albeit that they are squeezed into a smaller room.

The trailers started pretty much as soon as we got seated. And they went on for 25 minutes! As a result, the film didn’t start until 11 minutes after the film was due to start! Like, it’s been a while since I was last at the cinema in my home town, but they never put that many trailers on. The worst of it was that there was nothing that would have tickled my fancy!

Anyway, there was a grand total of 14 people watching the film. Which is actually pretty good compared to other times I went to the pictures in my home town. Put it like this: there were lots of times that my Mum and I were the only ones sitting watching the film.

I don’t know if they do this in other countries, but directly before the film starts the certificate is displayed showing the age certification and any warnings. It was a 15 certificate, and I’m sorry, but there is no way the girl sitting in the row behind us was as old as 15. The warnings were for violence and strong language. And we soon found out why.

I don’t want to give too much away to people who haven’t got the chance to see it yet. But, there were a number of interesting things I learnt. Firstly, that you can stub out a cigarette when you have a skate guard on your skate (never would have imagined skaters smoking backstage).

I also learnt why figure skating competitions are not filmed the way they were in this film. I was nearly getting sea-sick watching the on-ice sequences.

I have to say, as somebody who is used to watching the best elite level skaters, I was very disappointed with the quality of the skating in the film. Whatever you think of her, Tonya was a brilliant skater. But the skating in the film did not do her justice. And this was most brilliantly demonstrated when they showed Tonya’s FS from 1991 Nationals at the very end. The recreations of it earlier in the film just looked sloppy in comparison.

I was also disappointed that there wasn’t more focus on the figure skating circuit and who Tonya was up against. Like, the whole film was supposed to be a build up to “The Incident”. Yet, Nancy barely featured in the film. Just the odd shot of her here and there, and then the attack scene. And even that was only brief.

For other famous skaters, there was only a single shot in the film of each of Kristi Yamaguchi, Kati Witt, Oksana Baiul, Midori Itō. So, I take it the actresses were not paid much for playing people who were well known as World and/or Olympic Champions.

I can see why Allison Janney is winning so many awards. She really stole the show. I admit that I know nothing about LaVona in real life. But regardless of whether it was an accurate portrayal or not, Janney put on a brilliant performance.

After seeing a trailer for the film, I mentioned that Margot Robbie sounded the same as she did when she was in Neighbours, and that it was a bit off-putting because Tonya has a very distinctive voice. But Harriet replied, explaining that she was using two different accents according to what period of Tonya’s life was being shown.

Well, now that I have seen the film, I’m not so sure about that assessment. I thought Margot was drifting all over the place throughout it. And that there were no times when she sounded like Tonya, but there were plenty of times when I thought she sounded just like herself!

Nevertheless, I thought she did a good job portraying somebody a world away from the last character I saw her play (Donna Freedman in Neighbours).

For the rest of the cast, I have to be honest, I wasn’t impressed with the acting. But, I might be being a bit unfair on them, because I am not that familiar with the people they were playing. For all I know, that might have been what the real people were like.

My Mum wasn’t familiar with the story, apart from what I had told her. So, when I asked her what she thought of the film, she said “If that film was designed to get Tonya sympathy, it didn’t work”. And I agree.

Very early on in the film, I thought it was heading towards being a Tonya Harding propaganda film. But, by the end, although you could understand her better, you still couldn’t like her as a person.

Or any of the other characters, for that matter. As I said to my Mum on the way out, “None of them could tell the truth if you slapped them with it”.

Overall, although I am not one for films that contain a lot of violence and bad language, I did enjoy it. It was very enlightening. And I would definitely recommend it.

Just would have liked a bit more of the skating part of her life rather than so much of the home life.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[moonvine]

About to come out on Netflix. Get in line : )

How long?