I, Tonya

[center][img width=550]https://imgur.com/7j4Umrp.jpg[/img] [size=14pt][b]I, Tonya[/b] (2017)[/size] [i]"One of the most controversial and talked-about sports events in memory, the women's figure skating competition."[/i][/center] We've reached one of my favorite points in a Marathon like this. I take in what I just watched and look at what's ahead and think I'm in that next level where everything is going to be incredibly good. (This is usually burst a few films later when I'm terribly disappointed in a film I remember loving.) I never expected to be impressed by a film about Tonya Harding, I usually look down on sensational tabloid journalism stories and Craig Gillespie isn't a director I think much of. When I first watched this, I was pretty dazzled by the storytelling, the performances, the editing, effects and soundtrack. While it's not what I would think of as rewatchable, this was my 5th viewing and the best film I've seen in this Marathon so far. [center][img width=500]https://imgur.com/8bAqIX0.jpg[/img] [i]"I thought being famous was gonna be fun. I was loved... for a minute. Then I was hated. Then I was just a punch line. It was like being abused all over again. Only this time, it was by you. All of you. You're all my attackers too."[/i][/center] Few actors have come to define themselves in this decade like Margot Robbie. Bursting into the spotlight with The Wolf of Wall Street, defining comic book character Harley Quinn in a terrible film she's single-handedly spun off into a franchise, and twice Oscar nominated. So breakthrough, blockbusters and credibility in less than 10 years, and she hasn't disappointed yet. Something that becomes very clear when you watch this film multiple times is that while there's an overall jokiness to the film because of conflicting accounts, the portrait of domestic abuse got swept into that when it's actually the most thoughtfully-handled part. Nobody is excused and nobody is given full sympathy for their situation. It's credibly presented how Harding was abused by her mom and carried that into her relationship with Jeff Gillooly whose own youth and upbringing makes him weak and quick to lash out. (Sebastian Stan isn't just excellent, I never thought he had it in him.) The characters are not judged, they are allowed to be true. [center][img width=500]https://imgur.com/HxDDuRh.jpg[/img] [i]"I didn't stay home making apple brown betties. No. I made you a champion. Knowing you'd hate me for it. That's the sacrifice a mother makes."[/i][/center] Allison Janney goes big, but that's who she's playing too. You see someone who only understands the world through how you can manipulate it to suit you, and who sees everyone else's goals as obstacles to knock down. Between the lines Janney's mom believes she loves her daughter and doesn't receive the credit she deserves. It's also weird now to see how committed Paul Walter Hauser is that I thought he was an amateur actor until I saw him play Richard Jewell. I'm going long here so I'll skip over the skating sequences, which are prime examples of invisible effects, slick editing and a soundtrack that can take one move and break it all down so that we get 4 different needle drops in a matter of seconds.