I, Tonya
Neon | Release Date: December 8, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 47 Critic Reviews
Positive:
40
Mixed:
6
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJan 4, 2018
Craig Gillespie’s hysterically accurate biopic I, Tonya sets up the punchline she became. Harding’s spiteful rise and spectacular fall would make fine comedy even if they weren’t true. I, Tonya scores on higher degrees of difficulty, making these tabloid antics relatable and strangely sympathetic. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 21, 2017
I, Tonya is kitschy and smart and funny and insightful, and sometimes sobering. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 19, 2017
It’s buoyant. It’s bright. It has lots of pop music on the sound track, none of it from 1991 or 1994, and almost all of it from the late 1970s, mostly 1977 and 1978. The movie’s mix of music and era doesn’t quite make sense, strictly speaking, but like everything in this loose, inspired and yet tonally precise film, it feels right. Read full review
100
ObserverRex ReedDec 12, 2017
This remarkable movie — factual and funny, always surprising and unconventionally written, directed and acted — sets the record straight with an adrenalin rush that overwhelms the senses. Read full review
100
Time OutJoshua RothkopfDec 7, 2017
Destroyed yet defiant, Robbie walks the emotional tightrope of the most fabulously, tragically American film of the year. Read full review
91
Consequence of SoundAllison ShoemakerDec 8, 2017
Robbie has been great in many films, including some pretty bad ones (what’s up, Suicide Squad), but she’s outstanding here. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattDec 7, 2017
The skating scenes, too, are thrilling, but Robbie is the real revelation. In a performance that goes far beyond bad perms and tabloid punchlines, she’s a powerhouse: a scrappy, defiant subversion of the American dream. You won’t just find yourself rooting for this crazy kid; you might even fall a little bit in love. Read full review
91
The PlaylistKevin Jagernauth
Despite the darker edges, I, Tonya embraces the surreality of the story and winningly plays it mostly for comedy, with dips into drama, while crucially never mocking the central players. Read full review
90
Village VoiceApril WolfeDec 7, 2017
Those expecting camp or catfights won’t find them in Gillespie’s movie, which instead offers thoughtful and somewhat objective critiques, plus much seriously dark humor that’ll elicit a lot of uncomfortable gasps of laughter — and invites you to ponder difficult truths. Read full review
90
VarietyOwen Gleiberman
It’s a serious blast, with a plot that zigs and zags (but only because it sticks, within reason, to the facts), and a cast of characters who are so eccentrically scuzzy that maybe no one could have dreamed them up. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiJan 5, 2018
A riveting piece of cinema, successfully utilizing all the things that screenwriters are supposed to avoid: voiceovers, direct address, unreliable narrators. It also looks gorgeous, thanks to cinematographer Nicolas Karakatsanis and production designer Jade Healy. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 4, 2018
I, Tonya flirts with mocking its characters, but Janney and especially Robbie counter that with their unblinking, “not on my watch” performances. Read full review
88
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanDec 19, 2017
Funny when it wants to be, poignant when it needs to be, and surprisingly effective in harnessing these deeper themes to a character who might otherwise be dismissed as a lightweight laughingstock. Read full review
88
USA TodayBrian TruittDec 7, 2017
With punk-rock flair and no four-letter word left behind, the exuberantly rebellious I, Tonya takes a club to the biopic genre. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireDec 7, 2017
All of which makes I, Tonya such a wonder. Not only will it make you think about Tonya Harding again, it will make you do so with unexpected sympathy. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 7, 2017
I, Tonya is funny as hell, but the pain is just as real. You'll laugh till it hurts. Read full review
88
New York PostSara StewartDec 6, 2017
Profane, darkly funny, violent and tragic. Read full review
83
The Film StageJoseph Falcone
I, Tonya succeeds because of the pathos it creates. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid Ehrlich
Robbie, for her part, has never been better. Making the most of her first leading role since Z for Zachariah, she does a brilliant job of skating along the thin line that runs between glory and the gutter. Sympathetic but not too sympathetic, her performance is all that allows the film to maintain its tenuous hold over its queasy tragicomedy. Read full review
82
TheWrapTodd GilchristDec 8, 2017
Bustling with manic energy, I, Tonya attempts to cobble together a variety of perspectives — including that of the filmmakers — to create a portrait of, and perhaps rejoinder to, history’s assessment of the record-breaking athlete as little more than a ’90s tabloid footnote. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 12, 2018
Compellingly stumped by its own heroine, the film simply can’t make its mind up about Tonya Harding. If it did, it wouldn’t get away with being such a blast. Read full review
80
EmpireHelen O'HaraFeb 19, 2018
Robbie and Janney are flawless in a compelling and corrective account of a misunderstood figure; one of the more darkly funny biopics you’ll ever see. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt GlasbyFeb 19, 2018
Like Tonya on the ice, this vicious black comedy is lean, mean and hard to take your eyes off. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJan 4, 2018
Perhaps most interestingly, Gillespie's film is also in its own way, about all of us and our fascination with the Harding saga to begin with, boldly holding up a mirror for us to gaze into. What we see isn't exactly comforting. It might not even be correct. But it is certainly something to ponder. Read full review
80
SlateSam AdamsDec 9, 2017
The tone is tongue-in-cheek, with teeth gritted so hard you can taste just a hint of blood. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 7, 2017
This is a feel-real film, a sharp-witted, tough-minded biopic about Tonya Harding, the 1991 U.S. figure skating champion and two-time Olympian who skated rinks around most of her rivals but never became America’s sweetheart. Read full review
80
Screen DailyFionnuala Halligan
While it’s a consistently entertaining and often poignant film which addresses a wide range of issues under the stealth cover of humour, I, Tonya also gives Robbie the chance – her first, really – to show her full range as an actress. And she shines. Read full review
80
ScreenCrushE. Oliver Whitney
It’s a blisteringly funny and sympathetic portrait of the Olympian led by an outstanding, confident performance from Margot Robbie. Read full review
80
VoxAlissa Wilkinson
Craig Gillespie’s take on Tonya’s story, the hilarious and gut-punching I, Tonya, is a nearly pitch-perfect black comedy that distills the sensational story into two potent insights very relevant to 2017. It’s a movie about class, and it’s a movie about the nature of truth. And somehow it’s also a supremely entertaining sports movie. Read full review
78
IGNWilliam BibbianiDec 7, 2017
I, Tonya is a fairly conventional biopic of the scandalized sports star, but one buoyed by Margot Robbie's performance. Read full review
75
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonDec 21, 2017
The movie is a pitch-black comedy, told with a wink and a smirk by unreliable narrators, who include Harding, her mother, and her husband — all presenting self-serving versions of the truth, often standing in arch contrast to the images we are shown. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 21, 2017
As for Janney: Hers is a performance of such astute, subtle and compulsively watchable hamming, it’s guaranteed to win a supporting actress Oscar nomination. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrDec 20, 2017
One of the year’s surprises, a defiant, funny, and multi-layered saga of talent and class resentment, marred only by some technical oddities and a certain smug awareness of everything the moviemakers are daring themselves to do right. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 7, 2017
I, Tonya holds our interest by exposing the falseness and commercialism of Olympic-level skating competitions and illustrating how the perseverance shown by Tonya is perceived not as an asset but a character flaw. The film’s strength is that it does more than simply make us laugh. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Dec 6, 2017
I, Tonya may be more of a pop-biographical exercise than a deep interrogation, but there’s a resonance to the synergy between its star and its subject: one famous female artist reclaiming her professional narrative by playing another who never quite could. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeFore
I, Tonya spins a convincing yarn despite, or maybe because of, its surfeit of unreliable narrators. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
I, Tonya is not by any means a weeper. It’s a black comedy, and parts of it are too broad, like a second-rate Coen brothers movie. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 9, 2017
Janney knows how to nail a line like few others in the business. It helps that, in this film, she has most of the best ones. Read full review
65
Paste MagazineOktay Ege Kozak Dec 21, 2017
Screenwriter Steven Rogers and director David Gillespie get an “A” for effort as far as their brave attempt to meld these wildly differing tones into a cohesive narrative, but their execution, as satisfying as it might be, too obviously reaches for a pedigree it hasn’t yet earned. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayDec 1, 2017
The film’s habit of courting and then insulting the viewer is a conscious nod to the cycles of abuse that mark Tonya Harding’s story, but the filmmakers’ attempts to implicate their audience are I, Tonya's broken shoelace, too pat and glib to be convincing. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaDec 21, 2017
It's sometimes compelling, sometimes frustrating, and usually chaotic. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangDec 7, 2017
Harding’s story, in this overly broad retelling, is not especially strong on narrative density — or, for that matter, ambiguity. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin Lee
This is a broad, frequently cartoonish romp that plays like a less effective mishmash of To Die For and Fargo. The blunt, unashamed crudeness does provide some laughs but the tonal shifts are often uncomfortably handled. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Durga Chew-BoseDec 21, 2017
Despite rare glimmers of triumph – even hope – and classic underdog moments of jubilation (it does, occasionally, adopt the tone of a great sports film), I, Tonya is exhausting to watch. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 6, 2017
As I, Tonya skips here and there and thickens the plot, it becomes increasingly baffling why the filmmakers decided to put a comic spin on this pathetic, dispiriting story. No matter how hard the movie tries to coax out laughs, there’s little about Ms. Harding, her circumstances or her choices that skews as funny. Read full review
40
The AtlanticDavid SimsDec 8, 2017
I, Tonya too often feels glib and glancing, holding the public responsible for many of the easy assumptions and narrative shortcuts the film itself indulges in while telling Harding’s story. Read full review
30
The New YorkerRichard BrodyDec 8, 2017
Gillespie stages his empathy for Tonya at arm’s length; he fails to respond to her experience in a direct, personal way. The result is a film that’s as derisive and dismissive toward Tonya Harding as it shows the world at large to have been. Read full review
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