A running tab of movies I’ve seen in theaters or at home, and a quick comment about them. I’ve succumbed to the idea of assigning a personal score for each film. My scale:
- 4 Stars – One of the best, well recommended
- 3 Stars – Recommended, but some issues here and there
- 2 Stars – Problematic, hard to recommend
- 1 Star – Disappointment, stay away
Vice, December 2018 at Snowden. This quasi-biopic about Dick Cheney received endless previews, the most Golden Globe nominations this year, and somewhat mediocre reviews. I actually enjoyed it. You can’t accuse writer/director Adam McKay of not expressing his point of view or pulling any punches. I happen to agree that Cheney was a slimy bastard that “seriously damaged our nation.” The film is a bit scattershot and over-the-top in places as critics have noted, but Christian Bale’s impersonation-transformation is remarkable. 3 Stars.
Roma, December 2018 at home on Netflix. Alfonso Cuaron’s very personal, black and white remembrance of childhood and the family’s maid is getting a lot of award buzz. It’s sentimental, episodic, well made, a little mysterious, all a bit like my own memories of a long ago time. I think it lost some impact seeing it through Netflix at home rather than in a theater, though it’s nice to think I’ll be able to see it again sometime at my convenience. It’s an interesting film, fuzzy like a warm blanket, and admirable, a bit like one of my photo albums brought partly to life, with a child’s fragmented perspective and attenuated connections to actual historic events. I’m not convinced it’s a great film. No idea why it’s called “Roma” (Wikipedia says it’s titled after the neighborhood…who knew?). 4 Stars.
Green Book, December 2018 at Snowden. This was a problematic movie for me, well intentioned but overly sentimental and lightweight. It’s also been poorly marketed, in my opinion, as a statement on race relations and a real-life 1962 tour of the South when it’s really more of a road movie told mainly from the Italian protagonist’s perspective. Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali give serviceable performances but the characters never seem real. The Vallelonga family had their hands in the film’s writing, producing and acting and they come off as borderline saints. Meanwhile, we never really get inside Ali’s Don Shirley character and motivations. Overall, the whole thing comes off as more of a vanity project on multiple levels than something of real weight and insight. This Vanity Fair article does a good job of articulating a lot of the problems I had with the film. 2 Stars.
Diamantino, December 2018 at AFI Silver Spring, double-featured this with the Favourite. Presented as Portugal’s entry in the AFI’s European Union Film Showcase, as an offbeat satire of modern politics, sports, refugees, genders and more, through the lens of a Ronaldo-like soccer genius/simpleton. It includes a terrific little internal commercial about “Making Portugal Great Again” harkening back to the 16th century. Overall, the film doesn’t hit all marks but enough to make it an enjoyable piece of fluff, like the puppies that figure prominently and inexplicably. 2 Stars.
The Favourite, December 2018 at AFI Silver Spring. I enjoyed the performances of Olivia Coleman and Rachel Weisz in a loose take on Queen Anne and the Duchess of Marlborough (the real history is far more convoluted). Emma Stone plays her role as conniving upstart Abigail Masham well, but as an actress she carries a distracting load of outside baggage for me. There’s a lot of humor in the script and direction, and general bitchiness of the three leading ladies. It’s not a deep film, but fun and well played. To the extent it makes you actually look up the real history, it’s educational, too. 4 Stars.
Can You Ever Forgive Me?, December 2018 at AFI Silver Spring. It took me a while to see this film but I’m glad I finally did. It’s very well done, with terrific performances by Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant. It’s also well written and directed, and Jane Curtain does a strong supporting turn. It’s the true-ish story of Lee Israel as a down-and-out writer who makes ends meet by forging literary letters. It’s the kind of small, quality American film they say they never make anymore. It’s getting award buzz and I hope it wins some; it seems worthy of a wider showcase. I saw it at the AFI theater in the midst of their European Union Film Showcase; this film would have fit right in. Now I feel obligated to go and see at least one of the European films. I also enjoyed staying afterward to wander around Silver Spring for a while, watching skaters and getting a cheap lunch. It felt for a block or two like I was in New York. 4 Stars.
The Front Runner, November 2018 at AMC Columbia with Allie. This is the story of candidate Gary Hart in 1987 and the Donna Rice affair. It is not a great movie, reminiscent of Chappaquiddick from earlier this year in that it sketches a historical event but doesn’t really take a point of view about what actually happened. As Allie mentioned, it doesn’t fully incorporate the #MeToo movement’s perspective of victim’s rights; Donna Rice seems treated more as a plot device than a human being. Nor does it deal with recent reports that the whole scandal was a “dirty trick” staged by Lee Atwater. It’s interesting to me that Gary Hart is still very much alive and evidently willing to talk, but there’s been very little focus on him or the real story. Director Jason Reitman’s assertion that the film is meant to “open a discussion” rather than having a point of view seems to me like a cop-out born of the necessity to raise funds and get the film made. This story and its after-effects deserve a better movie. There are, however, some good articles that go into more depth, especially this one from The Ringer, and who knew Gary Hart has his own blog on current topics. 2 Stars.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindewald, November 2018 preview screening with Barb at Snowden. I went with Barb to this pre-release screening, and missed the first 10 minutes waiting in the popcorn line. Having not seen the first Fantastic Beasts movie, I would have been behind the curve anyway, but Lord, I was lost during most of this movie. It’s clearly setting up characters as the second installment a 5-part franchise that precedes and feeds into the Harry Potter saga. I admire J.K. Rowling’s vision and ambition to keep the U.K. film industry employed but this is not a ride I particularly want to be on. 1 Star.
Bohemian Rhapsody, November 2018 at Snowden. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot out of this film and it delivered the same. The best parts were the concert sequences (but it’s not like there’s a shortage of actual concert footage on YouTube) and the worst were just about everything else. The film enshrines a cleaned up shorthand version of Queen and Freddie Mercury for a new generation/market and serves as nostalgia for those forced to live through the actual 1970s-80s, but never felt very real or insightful above cliche. 2 Stars.
First Man, October 2018 at Snowden. This story of Neil Armstrong and his path to becoming first man on the moon was actually a bit better than I’d anticipated. It works as a quasi history lesson for the generations that have come since the event 50 years ago (can it be?). It also works as a companion piece of sorts with The Right Stuff — both capture some sense of the time and events as I recall them. It also seems to accurately portray the guarded stoicism of Armstrong as a man determinedly doing the job as he saw fit. I’m encouraged that the film was made with the input of Armstrong’s wife and sons, so hopefully the scenes of home life and character have some ring of truth. The film ends just after landing, but part of what I’ve always found fascinating about Armstrong was his post-lunar life. He was arguably the most famous man on the face of the earth — how did that affect him, and what did he do to build a life after that? That may be more a topic of books and articles rather than movies, but something I’d like to learn more about. I guess that means adding the authorized biography from which the film is adapted to my reading list. 3 Stars.
A Star is Born, October 2018 at Snowden with Barb, Betsy Pelovitz and Sherry Lynn Burke. I got caught up in the tremendous amount of hype and previews for this remake featuring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, so joined Barb and the ladies. I was disappointed in the film and depressed for several days thereafter. There were aspects of it I enjoyed, including some of the music and musical moments. It’s a star-making vehicle for Cooper (who also directed for the first time) and Gaga, though it’s hard to say either of them lacked for stardom already. But the shallow, melodramatic storyline didn’t ring true for me. Though it’s centered around music, there was precious little commitment to music styles or today’s divided market dynamics, no real discussion of money or finances or all the hangers on that make that world go around. I know it’s first and foremost a love story, but it overall arc of the story, it’s length, and what was left out ended up bothering me more than delighting me. I did appreciate some of the “Outlaw Country” roots of the songs and the presence of Lukas Nelson and his band in the film. I’m also happy to learn that the song I liked best, “Maybe It’s Time”, was written by Jason Isbell. There’s a lot of solid tradecraft and good intentions employed in this film, but I found the overall story and effort unnerving and hollow. 2 Stars.
Searching, September 2018 at AMC Columbia. I had some free time and an expiring free-ticket coupon so elected to see this based on a 90% RT score. Otherwise I didn’t know anything about it and enjoyed the mystery of walking into an unknown movie. A daughter goes missing and the father searches for her through the ghosts of her internet presence. I liked the conceit of having the whole film take place through the filter of various screens (phones, PCs, various apps). The contrivances begin to swamp the film in the final third, but I enjoyed the first hour of setup. And it’s another step for Asians in roles that could have easily gone to a white or any other family, so that was a plus in this political moment. I thought it was an unnecessary joke and giveaway to have the girl’s high school teams noted with a sign saying “Home of the Catfish!”, and the more I’ve thought about the film, the more creaky its structure seems but I enjoyed it in the moment. 3 Stars.
Red Sparrow, September 2018 on airplane from Dublin to Boston. Jennifer Lawrence as a Russian spy. This is emphatically not a good movie. Some have attributed its box office failure as a middle America reaction against J-Law’s anti-Trump positions. But no, it’s just not a very good movie. The plotting is obvious, the acting is wooden, and most Russian bad guys all look alike. And on the airplane the nude scenes were cut; I don’t think it made it better but it’s hard to imagine it getting worse. 1 Star.
Crazy Rich Asians, August 2018 at Snowden with Barb and Betsy Pelovitz. This was a highly anticipated film in our family, both for its cast of Asian characters and location in Singapore; Allie had already seen it on opening day and gave it a good report. I enjoyed it despite its excesses of froth and stereotype. It’s not a great film, by any means, but it was fun to see Singapore and the cast mostly looking their best. It seems sure to spawn a franchise of sequels and while it will be good to see other Asian locales, it would be even better to see greater depth and authenticity in the intertwined stories of families and cultures evolving together. I haven’t read the books, but I’m not sure depth is what the filmmakers will be going for (here’s a glimmer of hope). The awful caricatures of the grooms and bridesmaids parties seems an equally likely path. There’s been a tremendous marketing push and lots of articles about this film. One question I have that I haven’t seen anyone address: where are the fathers in these families? All are presented as matriarchies, which is fine, but seems odd for a society rooted in filial piety. 3 Stars.
BlackkKlansman, August 2018 at AMC Columbia. What an excellent film directed by Spike Lee. Based (loosely) on the true story of Detective Ron Stallworth’s (interesting that his personal blog from 2014-15 promoting his book is still up) infiltration and investigation of the KKK in Colorado Springs in the 1970s. This is really Spike Lee’s history lesson of racism in America, film history, and a chilling coda connecting the story to current events and the Charlottesville protest. It’s a bravura piece of filmmaking. Spike manages multiple levels of basic storytelling, history and social commentary to mostly good effect, sometimes heavy handed, but mostly on target. There are interesting performances from John David Washington (Denzel’s son), Adam Driver (who I’ve never really liked before but is nearly likeable here) and a scary one from Jasper Paakkonen (a Finnish actor who may be the next Christoph Waltz, turning up everywhere as a bad guy). But more importantly, the film makes you think, and has generated a raft of interesting articles delving deeper into race, films and where we are in America. Co-produced by Jordan Peele, kudos to this follow-up to Get Out, last year’s most talked about and successful exploration of race. 4 Stars.
Three Identical Strangers, July 2018 at Snowden. An interesting documentary, produced by CNN Films, about triplets who had been separated at birth and found each other at age 19 in 1980. It tells that story in the first third, then shifts into their discovery that their separation was part of a shadowy study into “nature vs. nurture” by a famed psychoanalyst, Dr. Peter Neubauer. The study was never published and is under wraps at Yale until 2066, presumably once all the subjects are dead. The documentary itself is good but gimmicky in a CNN sort of way, with overly dramatic music and reenactments. Most frustratingly, it doesn’t really get to the bottom of the questions and seem to leave some obvious avenues unexplored. Who were the funders of the study? Was there really “Washington” money involved? If all the children were placed by a single agency, why is it difficult to track down other potential subjects? Who are some of the other professionals involved in the study and why aren’t they speaking? Were there really other efforts to expose the study and why were they shut down? It seems there’s more to the case than is answered by the film. Evidently there’s a parallel documentary, The Twinning Reaction, that explores the same episodes and arrives at very different conclusions. 3 Stars.
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, July 2018 at Snowden with Barb. We got tickets for an advance screening on the Monday before the film opened. Barb enjoyed it and went to see it again with girlfriends…and said it was more fun seeing it with them. I didn’t love it any more than the original, but I’m often impressed at how easy it is to manipulate emotions with film and song. I fell for it here and there, but felt embarrassed and used. That said, the overall target is a short, frothy trip to Greece with an Abba soundtrack. Taken at that level, it hit the mark, maybe a bit better than the original. 2 Stars.
Sorry to Bother You, July 2018 at Cinemark Egyptian, Arundel Mills. This film has received a lot of positive critical buzz and cultural commentary, so I decided to check it out one weekday on my own. I came away mildly impressed, but not so much as I was by Get Out, which shares some of the same tone and view of the white world from a black perspective. One of the strongest gags in the film is that the hero, Cash, builds a successful telemarketing career by harnessing his “white voice”. From there, though, it spins into territories of soulless corporate greed, crazy white bosses, scifi slavery and genetic mutation. For me, the film kind of loses its way and lessens its impact in the bargain, but I also recognize that I am not the target audience. 2 Stars.
The Silence of Others, June 2018 at AFI Silver in Silver Spring. Laurie urged me to see this special AFI SilverDocs showing featuring a Q&A with the co-director, Robert Bahar. Laurie and Maggie know Robert and spouse and filmmaker Almudena Carracedo and had seen portions of the film in development. Maggie helped tweak the English subtitles, said Robert. The film itself is powerful and beautiful, telling stories of the forgotten violence of the Franco era and beyond in Spain. It features three threads of victims: children that were secretly separated from their parents at birth, families that lost parents or grandparents to death squads, and survivors of torture during the era. After Franco died in 1975, Spain’s government agreed on an amnesty law that “forgave” all sides of atrocities, but what the film makes clear is that “act of forgetting” does not heal the psychic and physical wounds suffered by victims and their families for whom forgetting is not an option. It’s been a lengthy, slow motion battle in international courts for the victims, since little is possible in Spain’s judicial and political climate, and the story is ongoing. This month the first trial of a Spanish doctor in a stolen baby case started. The film is on the international festival circuit now, will debut in Spain this fall, and will show on PBS “POV” series next year. It will be interesting to see how it helps push the story forward. 3 Stars.
Incredibles 2, June 2018 at AMC Columbia with Barb. Barb (and Allie, who’d already seen the film and highly recommended it) were very excited to see this long overdue sequel to The Incredibles. I was happy to go along and get some popcorn. The film was fine but didn’t do much for me. The best of Pixar films push boundaries of storytelling or artistry; this was straight down the middle of expectations. Some cute scenes here and there but little stood out. The short, Bao, was fun as well. Allie seems to have really loved it. I thought it was sweet but again, not groundbreaking. The popcorn was good, though. 2 Stars.
Deadpool 2, May 2018 at Snowden with Allie. Allie was in town and pulled me along to see this anti-superhero sequel. I hadn’t seen the original Deadpool but Allie felt I would probably enjoy it. Sure enough, I did, at least up to a point. The comedy, music choices and toying with film conventions were fun. The superhero stuff and violence is still not to my taste. The most enjoyable scene to me was a fairly subtle nod to the A-ha video of “Take On Me”. It was clear that the people making the movie were having a lot of fun at every step, and that translates to the viewer. I’m not a total convert, but I did enjoy it. 3 Stars.
Borg vs. McEnroe, April 2018 at Avalon, DC. A surprisingly well-done Swedish production focused on the 1980 Wimbledon final where Borg was going for his 5th straight title. The Swedish actor, Sverrir Gudnason, is a dead ringer for Borg, in his looks, eyes and on-court mannerisms. Shia LeBeouf is only slightly less convincing as McEnroe, and the main co-stars playing Borg’s coach, girlfriend and McEnroe’s dad ring true to my memory as well. And it turns out that young Bjorn is played by Borg’s actual son and apparently not a piece of stunt casting. The tennis is pretty well done, with reasonably accurate facsimiles of each player’s styles. I don’t remember the 1980 final vividly, though I do recall watching it and it being said it was the greatest match of all time. Though the movie is centered on the match, the real focus is on how Borg internalized the pressures of the tour and the fire of his competitiveness. It was a real loss to tennis and himself that he retired the next year at 26, but it’s encouraging to see that he weathered the storm to seemingly find contentment in later years. Borg was relentless and a perfectionist on court and certainly influenced Sampras, Federer and many more that followed. It’s good to remember him. McEnroe, on the other hand, just won’t go away, like an aging puppy that just wants to be loved while he chews your shoes and pees on the rug, at the same time. A great player in his time, but he survives as an obnoxious personality, commentator and self-promoter — a creature of our age. 3 Stars.
Beirut, April 2018 at AMC Columbia. A so-so spy thriller variant of Three Days of the Condor by the writer of Michael Clayton, Tony Gilroy. Both of those were better movies. Everyone’s playing games within games, and the only group more duplicitous than the CIA is the Mossad. The city of Beirut and its 1970-80s history are more of a prop and backdrop than an integral part of the story. And it’s very much a story about a group of Americans rather than the city or its inhabitants. It may well have fit better as a multi-episode series on Netflix to give it time to stretch out, educate more about the characters and fill in more background. The movie felt a bit like a not-very-intricate procedural jammed into two hours. 2 Stars.
The Viceroy’s House, April 2018 on Netflix. This should have been a much, much better movie. Written and directed by Gurinder Chadha who did Bend It Like Beckham. It plays like a mashup of “Upstairs, Downstairs”, “Gandhi” and “Romeo and Juliet” set in the Viceroy’s House in New Delhi, but it’s really about Lord Mountbatten’s handling (or lack thereof) of the India-Pakistan partition. The film deals superficially with the big subjects of the end of colonialism, post-WWII and Cold War politics, huge personalities like Mountbatten, Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah…but spends a lot of time on a love story of two servants in the House. She’s a Muslim, he’s a Hindu — will they get together or will it all come crashing down? The film is built around the book “Freedom at Midnight” which is probably a much better read. I had high hopes for Gurinder Chadha early in her career; I hope she makes a comeback at some point. This is clearly a heartfelt subject and effort but I wish it was a better result. 2 Stars.
Chappaquiddick, April 2018 at AMC Columbia with Laurie. A not-very-deep and ultimately not-very-satisfying movie about Ted Kennedy’s defining accident/tragedy. I left wondering why this movie was made at this time. It didn’t really shed new light on the incident, and seems to have left out large parts of the controversies around the event. Was Ted having an affair? How did Ted get out of the car but Mary Jo could not? On the other hand, Laurie and I (mostly I) consumed two buckets of popcorn and several quarts of Diet Coke during and after the movie, so maybe that put a dent in my critical faculties. 2 Stars.
Foxtrot, April 2018 at Charles Theater Baltimore with Laurie. Laurie and I stumbled across this film as something new playing locally and I literally knew nothing about it. It tells a tale of life and death in one family in modern Israel, in three parts. First, a mother and father learn of the death of their military son. Then we see more of the story at the remote outpost manned by the son and three young colleagues. Finally, we learn the more complete story a few weeks/months later. Filmed with lots of nearly excruciating close ups and disorienting camera angles, the director and writer Samuel Moaz pushes boundaries in storytelling, time sequences, and viewer discomfort. There’s a lot going on here. Laurie subsequently found articles saying it’s a commentary on modern Israel, and I’m sure that’s true at deeper levels than I could fathom. 3 Stars.
Tulip Fever, March 2018 on Netflix with Laurie. We wanted to see why this was such a poorly reviewed film despite its all-star cast including Christoph Waltz, Alicia Vikander, Judy Dench. Mostly because it was poorly written and/or edited to be nearly incomprehensible. It’s one film that might have actually benefited from a little more about the economics of tulips and a little less sex. Helps you appreciate better storytelling and better movies. 1 Star.
Isle of Dogs, March 2018 at Regal 20 Silver Spring with Laurie. I didn’t jump to see this Wes Anderson movie when it first came out, but was happy to go with Laurie to give it a try. I was very pleasantly surprised to enjoy the movie well beyond my expectations. It worked for me as a light fable of dogs working together to help a boy find his own dog. I marveled at the work entailed in the stop motion photography, the homage to Japan and its sensibilities, and the quirky asides that so often are the best thing about Anderson’s movies. The film has come under criticism (The Atlantic) for cultural appropriation which I feel is unfair. No doubt there were layers of metaphor that Anderson was reaching for, and perhaps he doesn’t hit home runs on all levels, but I enjoyed the film at several of its superficial levels and I think that’s probably enough. 3 Stars.
Death of Stalin, March 2018 at Bethesda Row with Laurie. I brought Laurie to this, though she didn’t know anything about it or writer/director Armando Iannucci’s work. We arrived a few minutes late (what, no previews?) and the dense, verbal seemed well underway. We felt a step behind most of the way through, and Laurie said she fell asleep at one point. I enjoyed the film for its silly moments, turns of phrase, and seeing the actors appear to have fun in their roles even if I don’t really know details of their historical counterparts. Hats off to Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) as Zhukov and Simon Beale as Beria. I do wonder, however, why Iannucci felt drawn to tell this story, based on a French graphic novel. I’ve tracked down several of his interviews (The Atlantic, NME) to get a better sense, and while they help, I feel like I need to see the film again to better appreciate it. And study up a bit on Russian history. Those are probably both healthy, positive takeaways from a film, but at some level doesn’t that also means the film didn’t tell the story adequately in the first place? I’ve enjoyed Iannucci’s Veep tremendously and felt it lost a step when he left. I need to track down his British series The Thick of It and film In the Loop, and want to understand his involvement in the Alan Partridge universe with Steve Coogan (and now there’s a new BBC series to watch for). 3 Stars.
Black Panther; Feb. 2018 at Snowden. Went by myself on Thursday, one week after opening, to see what the fuss was about. At one level this is a well-done comic book movie, but it’s still a comic book and I have some quibbles (why all the hand-to-hand fighting if their technology is so great? what is vibranium anyway and why does one mineral spawn such awesome technology? why is one girl in charge of all tech innovations and medicine (and no assistants, even)? where is the mercantile class? why fight for succession — is a knife fight really the best way to select a leader? doesn’t that promote some questionable traits in the leadership talent pool? why is Martin Freeman an American CIA agent?) More significantly, perhaps, the movie has spawned an outpouring of praise and cultural pride (samples from Vox, c|net, Forbes, Boston Review). I see the appeal of an Afro-centered fable/mythology, mostly black cast/production, strong woman warriors and savvy tech queen, and as Andrew Sullivan points out, a surplus of buff bodies. It’s a positive step for the black community worldwide to have a cultural touchstone and franchise. I like that it ended with an Obama-like message of building bridges, not walls. My guess, however, is that the cultural fervor will be engulfed in time by becoming another cog in the Marvel/Disney universe, which is the true kicker at the end of the credits. Why do I need to know about Bucky and White Fang? I will note that Andy Serkis does seem to have a wonderfully hammy time playing a South African mercenary. Rather like J.K. Simmons’ newspaper editor was to me the best thing about the original Spider Man movie. But that’s not really what it’s about, is it? 3 Stars.
Paddington 2; Feb. 2018 at AMC Columbia with Barb. Date movie with Barb largely because she wanted to see it, I wanted popcorn, and the reviews were surprisingly positive (still sits a 100% on RT Critics reviews). I was pleasantly surprised this movie, while a light piece of fluff, was done well and with some evident pleasure. Borrowing heavily from the Wes Anderson style of “Grand Budapest Hotel”, there are fun performances from Hugh Grant, Brendan Gleeson, and a host of notable British actors. Neither Barb or I have seen original Paddington movie but it’s now on our Netflix list. Unusual case of a sequel getting better notices and success than its original. 3 Stars.
The Post; Jan. 2018 at AMC Columbia. Another statement on truth, justice and the American Way by Spielberg, Hanks, Streep, et al. Rather more important than I, Tonya as a movie and topic, but presented in a bit more pedestrian, straight ahead manner. Here again I had a vague recollection of the actual Pentagon Papers events, but the movie fleshed out a lot more detail with an emphasis on Katherine Graham’s decision making. Who’s to say it’s an accurate account? Probably mostly so, given the pedigree of the cast and crew, though it’d be interesting to see more accounts from the people that were involved. Robert McNamara plays a central role and I’m reminded that I’d like to see The Fog of War again, one of the most compelling documentaries I’ve ever seen. I’d also like to learn more about Abe Rosenthal and Arthur Sulzberger in their roles as editor and owners of the New York Times. 3 Stars.
I, Tonya; Jan. 2018 at AMC Columbia. I was very pleasantly surprised by this film. I went in not knowing what to expect and with only a vague recollection of the Tonya Harding / Nancy Kerrigan incident. I liked the way this film was structured as a series of conflicting points of view, baldly stated up front. It ends up being generally sympathetic to Tonya’s version, but who’s to say what’s really true (other than that Tonya’s husband, Jeff, friend Shane seem like total idiots)? Alison Janney is getting well-deserved great reviews for her performance as Tonya’s mom, but I also thought Margot Robbie did a remarkable job as Tonya (and seemed to actually do a lot of the skating, which was impressive). I also enjoyed the soundtrack and stitching in of actual footage, especially of Tonya’s skating. The film becomes a larger statement on truth, justice and the American Way, and I enjoyed it’s verve and ambiguity. 3 Stars.