Allison Janney as LaVona Golden in I, Tonya

Best Supporting Actress at the 90th Annual Oscars (2017)

Notable Quote:

“I’m a gardener who wants to be a flower, how fucked am I?”

Synopsis:

I, Tonya tells the story of infamous figure skater Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie), as well as the coterie of assholes that surrounded her, including her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan) and her mother LaVona Golden (Allison Janney).

The character:

LaVona Golden is cruelty personified. She treats her daughter like garbage, denigrating her verbally, and physically abusing her (including chucking a steak knife at her!?). At one point, LaVona literally pays a man to heckle Tonya. We see her say something nice on exactly one occasion, and of course, it turns out that it’s because she’s trying to catch her daughter admitting to a crime on tape. Sigh. If I have a complaint about LaVona, it’s that she lacks complexity: I don’t need some tragic backstory, but I wish we got a better sense of what she’s all about. She espouses the idea that she’s just mean to Tonya so she’ll succeed, but she never even seems to want her to be a success. There’s potential for a richly contradictory character, but LaVona ends up as a one note baddie.

The scariest thing about LaVona is that she infuses her constant proclamations with enough truth that it’s hard to brush off her words. After Tonya weds abusive doofus Jeff, LaVona scolds her, saying, “You fuck dumb. You don’t marry dumb.” And she’s right that Jeff is going to be a terrible partner, but she refuses to acknowledge the fact that she’s the person who set Tonya up to seek out violent relationships. LaVona also never lets Tonya forget that she’s the person who enabled her skating career, and constantly wields that against her. There’s an astuteness to her barbs: you know that if LaVona made a dig at you, you’d occasionally find yourself thinking about it years later, wondering if she was right about you all along.

The performance:

Does anyone not love Allison Janney? She’s in a million fun projects (I’m partial to her role as wacky neighbor Loretta in Drop Dead Gorgeous) and I love that this movie gave her an Academy spotlight. As discussed, LaVona is a nightmare, but the character wouldn’t work if she was solely off-putting. But because of Janney’s charisma, there’s something entrancing about what a force of nature this woman is, so I often found myself laughing at her horrendous remarks, even while they horrified me. I have problems with the tone of the film: it’s a jarring mix of comedy and nastiness that often whiffs, but Janney rides that bizarre line really well.

My favorite thing about Janney’s performance is her ability to project such a hard, icy shell. LaVona really does not seem to have an ounce of empathy. Of course, with that being said, I do wish that Janney had the chance to show us LaVona’s humanity. I can’t help comparing her to Mo’Nique’s character in Precious: she’s fully loathsome, but also gets a level of depth that actually makes the character even more monstrous. It’s hard not to see it as a missed opportunity, not only for the character, but for Janney to show off more of her acting chops. But I can’t complain too much, as it’s still a very successful performance.

The movie:

I have complicated feelings about I, Tonya: I’ve seen it once before this rewatch, and absolutely loathed it, but I come away with much more appreciation this time around. At the very least, it makes bold choices, even if I disagree with them. My biggest issue is that the film is very critical of the media circus that exploited Tonya, while replicating that exact media circus. It plays for laughs the fact that these people were poor and dumb, and emphasizes the oddities of the incident that tabloids loved. Like, don’t serve me a movie about the tawdry affair of Tonya Harding and then wag your finger at me for being interested?

However, on this watch, I’m more receptive to the mixed tone, because it is a complicated story that naturally inspires a variety of feelings. I’m obsessed with this Tonya profile by Taffy Brodesser-Akner: it’s worth reading the whole piece, but in particular, she comments on the bizarre vibe of the film, saying, “Sit with her for an hour and you will understand that there might be no other way to go with the material. This is how she sounds.” The Tonya Harding story is one of judgment, sadness, compassion, and comedy, and given that, maybe the bonkers feeling of the movie makes sense.

Was the Oscar deserved?

Yes, this is a memorable turn from Allison Janney. (Although if I’m honest, I would have preferred a Laurie Metcalf win for Lady Bird.)