[insert funny title for] ‘I, Tonya’

I’ve finally found a film that I think is going to remain top of mind when someone asks me to name a ‘black comedy’.

I know that The Nice Guys gets a lot of credit for being a great Black Comedy, but my memory says it was just straight up slapstick.

The film I, Tonya is a film that deals with truly dark, grim circumstances as it recounts the story of Tonya Harding. The film’s narrative is based on interviews taken of the three main characters in her life- Tonya herself, her mother, and her ex husband (and I think an interview with the tubby, larping bodyguard). The film frames itself as a neutral explanation using the testimonies given, but it’s hard, given the flow of the story, to not feel empathy for Tonya.

The characterizations are the true stars of the film, and I suppose that’s a consequence of building film characters off of real people that the filmmakers can study and talk to at any time. As a result, some viewers may find the characters… confusing. Is Tonya innocent? Is she good? What’s her husband’s problem? Is the mom just a jerk? Where do babies come from? What’s this spot on my ass? Does Tonya have any redeeming qualities? How trustable is the narrative? I think all of those questions just add to the experience.

See, I like to think of movies as a puzzle. The best ones give you pieces out of order. You’ll get a corner piece or two in the form of the characters and the inciting incident, and then there’s clues in the form of visuals, decisions, even musical cues. It’s fun to piece things together. It’s even more fun when you start to get the big picture, but you’re still waiting for the tiny pieces and the details to come together. Sometimes you get mad at the puzzle and crumple it up. Sometimes you don’t even know what the picture is of, and you gotta finish the movie before you finally get it. Those are the best movies.

If you know the story of the real Tonya Harding, then you may kinda get where the movie is gonna go. But that’s where you get the really interesting filmmaking, right? Like the untrustable narratives, the confusing character motivations, the unique narrative structures. The goddamn humor. Making fun of the ridiculous, dark, depressing, confusing ways people can be. That’s what makes the film I, Tonya

GOOD

There’s a lot to like about the film, but you may need thick skin to enjoy it past the violence.

Wondering how my rating system works? Let me explain!