After the film earned raves at the Toronto International Film Festival (our own Mike Ryan was a huge fan) we’ve been waiting on pins and needles and ice skates for the first chance to watch Margot Robbie serve ice queen realness as Tonya Harding. Our wait is at last over.
Directed by Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl), I, Tonya follows the then 23-year-old Tonya Harding throughout the 1994 Winter Olympics attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan and subsequent media explosion. It’s difficult now to remember exactly how massive this story was, pitting frizzy-haired, working class Harding against the perfect Kerrigan. Co-starring alongside Robbie are Allison Janney as Harding’s mother and Sebastian Stan as Jeff Gilooly, Harding’s boyfriend who orchestrated the knee hit heard ’round the world. The dark comedy explores Harding’s life being abused by both these people, and how the public eye turned her into the real enemy.
“Tell the truth. There’s no such thing as truth. I mean, it’s bullshit,” Harding says in a voiceover in the trailer. Harding versus Kerrigan versus the world was definitely fraught with bullshit (history tends to forget neither took the gold) steeped in classism. And our truth is we cannot wait for this movie.
