I, Tonya

— This is a good film and I did like the way is was done, although I’m hard pressed to define the style. Dark comedy? Pseudo documentary? Over-the-top trashy? Whatever it is, it’s got good people doing it, managing to retell the story of Tanya Harding’s assent and descent in the figure-skating world based on wildly conflicting narratives by key people, including Harding, her husband, her mother, and her coach. The failure of anyone to take responsibility and the notion that we all have our own personal truths, permeate the film. The problem, of course, is that while what we see as truth comes through our own filters and is personally adjusted over time, there are still those pesky facts to deal with. It’s a good reminder of the bias our own pasts, beliefs, and righteousness can bring to our perspective on everything, and of the way the media can nudge the truth in a profitable direction. The image of Allison Janney—older and on one end of a floral sofa with busy wallpaper behind her, feisty and cranky, wearing a fur coat, with oxygen and a parrot on her shoulder—will stay in my head for a while. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s much better than average.

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[2017. Directed by Craig Gillespie. Starring Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney, Ulianne Nicholson, and Paul Walter Hauser.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/i-tonya-2017