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****
Dir: Craig Gillespie (15, 120 mins)
A superbly visual, funny, moving and thrilling retelling of champion ice skater Tonya Harding’s life. Told by three very unreliable narrators, I Tonya, does a cinematic triple axel. Margot Robbie stars as Tonya Harding, a ‘white trash’ ice skater pushed by a ruthless mother from hell (an Oscar-worthy Alison Janney) towards Olympic glory. She may not be the cookie-cutter American Homecoming Queen but she’s talented. Her abusive ex-husband Jeff (a never better Sebastian Stan) tries to control and manipulate her but she ends up too strongwilled, though ultimately he plays a part in her downfall. Harding allegedly had someone kneecap her arch rival Nancy Kerrigan – the events here are murkily motivated, the incompetence of their execution incredibly blackly comic. Robbie successfully creates a very human Harding; she may not be what the Olympic committee wanted to represent the USA, but she had plenty of talent and grit. The film holds up a mirror to snobbery, class and the ‘acceptable’ lifestyle of a winner with aplomb. Director Gillespie propels the film at a breakneck pace, mixing direct to camera interviews from the main participants and flitting back and forth in time with ease. It’s bravura film-making, worthy of Olympic gold.
Opens February 23