The Teaser Trailer for 'I, Tonya' Has Dropped and You Can Count Me IN
Finally, the moment I’ve been waiting for. I’ve been looking forward to the release of I, Tonya as much as any Star Wars sequel or Marvel Cinematic Universe film I can remember. And so, as part of that inevitable movie hype cycle of: Teaser Trailer, Theatrical Trailer then Theatrical Trailer 2, it’s so far so good.
I mean, this had me right at the establishing shot. Margot Robbie taking a drag of a cigarette just before she goes on the ice, dropping it to the floor and stomping it out with her skate blade is visual poetry. There in one series of images, the filmmakers perfectly encapsulate the essence of Tonya Harding. That is what great movie making is all about.
I can’t say definitively that the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan scandal is the best sports story of my lifetime. But I can honestly say that no short list would be complete without it. It just had everything. Heroes and villains. Plot twists. Tonya’ mom being interviewed with a bird on her shoulder. Side hilarious characters with porn ‘staches. All ending in an Olympic skating finals for the ages. It was more like a work of great fiction than real life. Which is going to be the challenge for I, Tonya. How do you dramatize a story when the real one is already so perfect?
I admit I’m still skeptical Robbie can pull off Harding. Not because she can’t act. She can. But for one of the human race’s most beautiful specimens to convince audiences she is 1990s America’s most notorious, low rent, podunk, trailer trash is going to require a suspension of disbelief that I’m not sure is possible. But Charlize Theron did it in Monster. And if Margot can pull it off, let’s not even bother naming five Best Actress nominees and just give the Oscar to her.
Now I just need the release date on this thing so I can camp out on the sidewalk to be first in line for tickets.