I, Tonya is opening this weekend, so there was a premiere and people showed up. Tonya Harding showed up! It’s been so long since I’ve seen Tonya Harding, I almost didn’t recognize her. But there she is, in a black dress with some kind of colorful underskirt. I wonder what she thinks of the movie? On the one hand, her life story turned into a really good film that has a shot at contending for some major (mostly acting) awards. She is presented with sympathy, especially as the film delves into parental/domestic violence and the class issue which was entirely omitted from the news coverage of the time. In I, Tonya, you see exactly how high the wall Harding had to scale was, and how impossible the media and the US Figure Skating Association made it. But on the other hand, the film does not shy away from showing Harding as someone who cannot accept responsibility for anything, and who knew, at the very least, of a plan to intimidate Nancy Kerrigan. It’s a sympathetic portrait, but not a particularly flattering one.
Also at the premiere were the stars of the film, Margot Robbie, Allison Janney, and Sebastian Stan. Robbie has a knack for Seventies and Eighties-inspired fashion, which she’s working here, and Stan is one of the only people who can pull off an all-black ensemble and not look like a hitman (I think it’s how he always uses contrasting textures in an all-black look). And Janney looks like she’s doing an award show practice run, which she should, because she’s probably going to be walking a lot of red carpets soon. Also turning up to support Robbie were a couple of her Suicide Squad mates, Joel Kinnaman and Jai Courtney. That’s sweet, they made a terrible movie together and became friends for life. But it’s hard to look past Tonya Harding, and what she thinks of the movie about Tonya Harding.
