I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie, 2017)

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domino harvey
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Re: I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie, 2017)

#51 Post by domino harvey » Thu Mar 22, 2018 8:59 pm

I mean, I've written quite a bit on why I value this film

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mfunk9786
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Re: I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie, 2017)

#52 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Mar 22, 2018 9:01 pm

Just saw a very narrow pinhole through which a Simpsons reference could be crammed, I don't care whether you like Goodfellas or not (I mean, I do in a polite, "respect your opinion" sense, but...)

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aox
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Re: I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie, 2017)

#53 Post by aox » Thu Mar 22, 2018 9:48 pm

This contest is over. Give mfunk9786 the ten thousand dollars!

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domino harvey
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Re: I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie, 2017)

#54 Post by domino harvey » Thu Mar 22, 2018 9:55 pm

But he's only getting the check so he doesn't sue the powerplant for sterilizing him

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aox
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Re: I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie, 2017)

#55 Post by aox » Thu Mar 22, 2018 9:57 pm

I doubt mfunk9786 even knows what a pannerplant is.

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Lost Highway
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Re: I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie, 2017)

#56 Post by Lost Highway » Fri Mar 23, 2018 7:35 am

After watching it this week, I'm fairly neutral on the film. I was dreading this as I'm not that enamored with "white trash" cliches, but Tonya Harding emerged as a reasonably nuanced character. The mockumentary segments and the breaking of the fourth wall are stylistic aspect I'm fairly tired of, especially in regard to this type of film. I love Allison Janney, she does everything expected from the role and she does it perfectly but after seeing this I'm more than ever in the Laurie-Metcalf-was-robbed camp. One performance has to hit the same note over and over but Metcalf's character so nuanced and she is a mother you keep changing your opinion on.

The whole of I, Tonya is very broad and there no denying that there are people who basically are caricatures of themselves, so the style was fitting. It's just not something I enjoy as much as The Florida Project, which also is a film about people in a poverty trap where the central character doesn't do herself any favors but I didn't constantly feel manipulated. I, Tonya is a masterpiece however in comparison to the movie I watched just after, Baby Driver, which I thoroughly loathed.

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knives
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Re: I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie, 2017)

#57 Post by knives » Mon May 14, 2018 10:30 pm

Put me in the pro camp. This reminded me far less of Scorsese and more of Bay's masterwork Pain and Gain with its concerns being about the impossibility of an objective history and how that is made all the more difficult to realize by the pettiness certain ideologies, in this case white trash blame game. It's a funny film mostly because all the pieces are too insane to be real not because of any hatred of the characters by the filmmakers (the major difference from Bay and why this film doesn't need an Ed Harris character). I think the mother character proves this. Janney offers something likable though not worth an ounce of sympathy that has the weight of real drama behind it as mentioned above. Yet there's also this viscous absurdity to her which is hilarious because the cruelty shouldn't be real. There is a real societal construct which gives a sense of the inevitable, but that too is just a lie the characters tell themselves.

Also Sebastian Stan's Giovanni Ribisi impression is amazing.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie, 2017)

#58 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Nov 09, 2020 3:52 am

domino and knives already described this film's strengths perfectly, and even though I'm always a sucker for the unreliable narrator reflexive use of the medium, I needed to revisit this to fall in love. Aside from the unknowability of truth and default to subjective-reality as both hilarious and sobering acceptance on the part of the viewer, the ambiguities of emotional essence behind the facades exist on a quieter platitude. For such a loud film with loud perfs, Janney's final scene where she stops everything at work to just see Tonya's face after her match, watching steadily and with undivided attention, is impenetrable in its purpose. Is she looking for emptiness to feel superior, or happiness to feel like she did the 'right' thing- per their earlier conversation where she negates the hierarchal value of love- or is it actually a deeply selfless empathy that she's been unable to show until now? Of course this moment, just like many here, exist in a strange space between ultra-cognizant artificial formula and a reflection of the bitter truth in mystical intent, but it's a beautiful scene of humble restraint embedded in a Russian-doll of the opposite in flashy constructed third-act audience catharsis. What seems like classic 'mother returning to watch the daughter from a safe distance' is anything but; the absence of any clear emotion is what is so different and elevates the film into something much more complex than it pretends to be.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie, 2017)

#59 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Nov 09, 2020 11:38 am

Also, as to the question of whether Gillespie is a “hack” - I haven’t liked anything else I've seen from him, including the heavily-praised Lars and the Real Girl. I’ve only seen it once, the year it came out, so perhaps it’s unfair to brand it as an annoying indulgence of indie quirks-played-straight, but there’s an interesting similarity between these films in a central character delusionally subscribing to a subjective reality to express what they can’t without it. Lars does this with absolute sincerity as its primary tool, and since Gosling’s barriers to expression come from within, our roles are resigned to those of strict observers watching a dull character ‘be.’ I, Tonya, on the other hand, negates the importance of sincerity as the only qualifier for uncovering ‘truth’ - going so far as to expand the definition of the word, acknowledging that emotion and naturally-defensive psychologies skew perspective. Tonya can’t express what she needs to because of the external world blocking her voice, as they apparently always have (or at least she has perceived that they have, which is its own form of individualized truth) so this film is her chance (all of these characters’ chances, really, including Shawn’s- I mean, just look at that self-delusional interview!) to preach those perspectives with an urgency in self-preservation, and the film is dependent on our participation as an audience. By involving the audience, Gillespie plays with the ambiguity in whether this suppression is coming from our side or the their side, creating an ‘us-them’ dynamic while simultaneously positioning the film as a bridge to work through the truth layered in facts, quickly dissipating any objective notions into facts-as-perception. It’s a much more mature and complex strategy at exploring the theme of his earlier film, and I’m not sure if he dug into this area with any of the other non-Fright Night works, but I hope he continues to going forth.

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