"I,Tonya"

Tonight's movie was "I, Tonya" (2017), another film that - like "Lady Bird" - might not seem like my style, but also like "Lady Bird" it was nominated for some Academy Awards, and if I recall correctly Allison Janney won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance. After the Oscar telecast in March, I went to the Library website and reserved copies of all the films that sounded interesting to me. They took a while to get here, but now are starting to arrive. I had bad luck with one ; "Three Billboards", which caused me to question the standards of the Academy voters, but now my faith is somewhat restored with two good ones in a row, "Lady Bird" and "I, Tonya".

To be sure, both films are very much "of the present", not in subject matter necessarily but in filmmaking style, and because of that, we are not talking about masterpieces here, just entertaining films with very good performances by the lead actors.

"I, Tonya" stars Margot Robbie as the infamous figure skater Tonya Harding. The movie is essentially the story of her life, up to the 1994 Winter Olympics and the "incident" (as it is referred to in the film), that ruined her career. The script was apparently based on a series of interviews Harding gave later on in her life, and also interviews by her former husband Jeff Gilooly, who hatched the initial plan to harm Nancy Kerrigan, who was Tonya Harding's #1 skating rival.

Everybody remembers the Tonya/Nancy drama, because it was huge news, and I mean huge, which just shows you how much the world has changed since the early 90s. Nancy Kerrigan was America's Darling because she was graceful and fragile. Tonya became America's White Trash Outcast, because of the actions of her abusive husband and his inane criminal friends. The irony is that she was a great skater with groundbreaking athleticism, and very likely would have won an Olympic medal if not for her upbringing by a crude and brutal stage mother and her long and torturous relationship with Gilooly, who, as it turned out following an FBI investigation, was responsible along with his cronies for the attack that left Nancy Kerrigan with a broken knee just weeks before the Olympic Games were to begin.

As with "Lady Bird" last night, "I, Tonya" at first focuses on the relationship between daughter and mother. In both movies the families are poor and disadvantaged. In "Lady Bird", her mother tries to downplay and discourage her daughter's vague ambitions of attending an Ivy League college. She is verbally abusive but not physically violent. Tonya Harding's mother, on the other hand, is a terrible woman. She recognises her daughter's athletic gifts when she is four years old, and proceeds to push her to achieve her potential by yelling at her, criticising her and hitting her at every turn. The mother's excuse is that, "I've paid for every lesson you've ever had". Her mother drove her to be a champion through abuse combined with a sort of encouragement brought about by proxy. The Mom wants to feel superior to all of her lower-middle class associates, and she does so through the skating successes of her daughter, who goes all the way to the Olympics but has little more than a trailer park background.

Her Mom works hard as a waitress but clearly hates life and wants to stick it to everyone around her, and her talented daughter is her weapon.

I remarked about the filmmaking style of modern movies. "I, Tonya" is presented as part quasi-documentary, with Robbie-as-Tonya narrating the story via "taped interviews", and part traditional dramatic storyline. The story is filmed and presented in a way that emphasizes the "white trash" background of Harding, and I was dismayed to see reviews on the dvd box, and to read other reviews online that describe this movie as a black comedy.

I hate the term "white trash", and I don't feel it is funny to make light of a person's background. Now, it is important to note that the movie does not do this. The director plays it straight, and though he puts a slightly stereotyped touch on the characters, he never confuses the real life emotion that is involved.

But to read that some reviewers found this film funny, in any way, is disturbing to me. And I suppose it is another sign of our Trumpian times, because the same reviewers are probably the ones who thought the repulsive "Three Bilboards" was an ironic black comedy masterpiece.

Man, I can't stand phony baloney people. But I won't go on a tirade, I promise. :) 

"I, Tonya" may play as "goofy/dysfuntional" but it is in no way a comedy. Instead, it is a tragedy because of what happened to Tonya Harding throughout her life. She grew up as a foul-mouthed and inelegant competitor in a sport that required feminine decorum, but she could skate circles around most of the other girls. The skating judges, though, had it in for her from the start, because of her family background, and her mother and husband were endlessly abusive, and he finally wrecked her life by organising the hit on Nancy Kerrigan.

It's not a funny story at all, just a story of a talented child who under extraordinarily difficult circumstances developed her talent to it's fullest extent, only to have her opportunities taken away from her permanently by forces beyond her control, which in this case were toxic personalities.

Child abuse is never funny, nor can it be rationalised, even if it produces a near Olympic Champion.

Man, I can't wait until the Age Of Irony is overwith, and people hopefully return to feeling normal  human emotions again, emotions that include compassion and exclude ridicule.

See you in the morning.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)