Craig Gillespie, director of the recent The Finest Hours, offers his first lead role to actress Margot Robbie. In Me, Tonya, she plays professional skater Tonya Harding. The feature film returns to this news item that had frenzied the chronicle, when the skater Nancy Kerringan was attacked, and that the suspicions were on Tonya Harding.
An effective biopic, punctuated by its editing
Craig Gillespie signs an effective and rhythmic biopic, carried by a sweet soundtrack straight out of the 1980s. Fun and frenzied, I, Tonya seduces thanks to its editing cut with intelligence. With different temporalities, fake interviews, and sometimes a broken fourth wall, the feature film offers a frenzied rhythm, which never runs out of steam. This is the great strength of this feature film , which allows us to return to a story that has fallen into oblivion, that the new generation does not necessarily know.
The skating sequences are perfectly executed, between concealed visual effects, and a talented voice actress. Bewitching, they are sublime and above all very impressive. Perfectly executed, they bring a little magic into Tonya's dreary, violent and sad life. This biopic allows us to discover a bygone artist, neglected by the unjust functioning of our society : putting someone forward, to mistreat him and forget him as quickly as he appeared. But also in her private life, punctuated by immeasurable losers between an evil mother and a totally stupid boyfriend. As for Margot Robbie, she pierces the screen.
Me, Tonya: A Saving First Role for Margot Robbie
This young actress, for the moment confined to supporting roles (Suicide Squad, The Wolf of Wall Street, Diversion), finally holds the title role of a feature film, which she carries on her strong shoulders. Without ever deserving, the Australian actress flourishes at the head of a film, which she sublimates by her presence and a game that begins to take shape. Margot Robbie convinces in the role of this skater, and creates enough ambiguity to stick to this incongruous story.
Me, Tonya does not remember the recent Battle of Sexes: a young actress in the role of a sports feminist, the very sexist world of sport, a surpassing of oneself to face differences, and a montage that alternates private life and sports sequences. Even in its substantive subject matter, the two films are closer: the abandonment of all social life to excel in a complicated profession. Only the conclusion differs, happy ending opposed to a vertiginous fall.
Me, Tonya is more than just a biopic, it is also a rhythmic, endearing comedy, thanks to its very well written characters, and the return on an incongruous and unknown story.
