2017

I, Tonya (Director: Craig Gillespie)
Nominees: Logan, Loving Vincent, Thelma, Phantom Thread, mother! Lady MacBeth, Wonder Woman, Dunkirk, November

Oscars Pick: The Shape of Water
Nominees: Call Me By Your Name, Dunkirk, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread, Darkest Hour, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Get Out, The Post

I, Tonya is an irreverent, snarky and self-aware look at the truth.... as each character sees it. It also manages to blend in a healthy dose of humanity. Comedy/tragedies are tricky, but with a smart screenplay and clever editing I, Tonya makes it work. Even the too on-the-nose song selections (Devil Woman for mommy dearest) work.

It pounces on the main players at the start, portraying them as cruel, stupid and ridiculous. And there's an irony in that when you see how the story unfolds and how it digs deeper into Harding's life and character, and admonishes such things (though mom and the bodyguard are who-they-are to the bitter end, there are moments when their facades crack a shade. See Shawn at the Chinese restaurant, or LaVona after sticking her daughter with a knife). While defiant, Tonya is rather like a figure from a Fassbinder film, in that she'll play the victim - things are never her fault (though remember, we are getting her 'truth' in certain scenes. The skate judges, for example, might actually have had it in for her, or that might just be her perception of reality. Was she so flawless a skater in those events?) But she's also (truly) victimized, by an abusive husband (he denies this), and by having grown up in an environment that wasn't exactly warm and nurturing.

As many have pointed out, the acting was amazing across the board. Allison Janney is electric playing the toxic parent, as is Margot Robbie - who provides layers where I thought, at first, I wouldn't find any. I also like how the film folds in on itself: Black humor is part of the pictures personality, but when we reach a point where Harding has become a joke, and she's listening to a Letterman Top 10 zeroed right on her... it no longer seems very funny. In fact, it's a tragic waste.

I don't know how much the real Tonya knew, how involved she was in the “incident”, but the film gives the sense of a life and career circling the drain. Bad reputation, bad people around her, bad choices on her part. Amidst all that, she had her perfect moment, and they play it during the end credits - and you see what she was when she was in her element – in a place that was pure and uncluttered. That should have been her primary legacy, not the idiotic scheme to steal away another person's dream through an act of violence.

I shouldn't be surprised that I liked the film as much as I did, even more so than several 2017 productions that have been ranked ahead of it by critics and film buffs. It's unconventional, smart, funny and tragic - while some struggle with that mix, it makes me think of the film The Nasty Girl, which blended fantasy into its dark reality. Some viewers didn't care for that either. I, on the other hand, loved it for taking that risk and having that kind of imagination. And I admire and enjoyed I, Tonya for doing the same.

Neck and neck with Tonya was Logan - my reviews for it are posted Here and Here.

My 2017 Top Film Rankings

Acting Awards: 
While I liked Oscar's best actress, Francis McDormand gave a similar performance in the miniseries, Olive Kitteridge, and personally, I liked her better there (liked the film more too). Plus she's won the Felix previously. My pick is Margot Robbie, whose work is richly detailed. Her Tonya is tough, but not invincible - and really, more than anything, she just wants to be loved. That look on Robbie's face when Tonya's mother shows some of that love (and the hurt when she discovers the betrayal) or the scene where she applies makeup before her Olympic skate, all of it left an impression.

My best actor was Song Kang-ho, a long time favorite from several Bong Joon-ho pictures. Kang-ho starts off doing that goofball thing he does so well... but then slowly a transformation in his character occurs, as he finally witnesses the tragic and terrible truth of the political struggle with his own eyes. It's a magnificent character arc, acted to perfection.

Several other lead and supporting roles I enjoyed include Lior Ashkenazi & Sarah Adler (Foxtrot), Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf from Lady Bird, Sally Hawkins in the Shape of Water, Jack Black in Jumanji, Richard Jenkins, Sam Rockwell, Willem Dafoe, Hugh Grant, Andy Serkis (Planet of the Apes) and Tatiana Maslany. As to who made the final cut...

Best Actor: Song Kang-ho, A Taxi Driver
Honorable Mentions:
Hugh Jackman, Logan * Jake Gyllenhaal, Stronger * Bill Pullman, The Ballad of Lefty Brown * Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq. * Harry Dean Stanton, Lucky * Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread * Sebastian Stan, I, Tonya

Supporting Actor: Patrick Stewart, Logan

Best Actress: Margot Robbie, I, Tonya (pictured top)
Honorable Mentions:
Florence Pugh, Lady MacBeth * Jennifer Lawrence, mother! * Melanie Lynskey, I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore * Alexandra Borbély, On Body and Soul * Frances McDormand, Three Billboards * Dafne Keen, Logan * Lois Smith, Marjorie Prime

Supporting Actress: Allison Janney, I, Tonya (pictured left)



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