I, Tonya review: 'Flamboyantly irreverent and often confronting'

Almost too nuts to be true, I, Tonya is the story of the redneck figure skater who defied the establishment to make it to two Olympic Games.

However, it was off the ice the Tonya Harding story went next level.

The attack on fellow competitor Nancy Kerrigan in 1994 shocked the world, the possibility Harding was somehow responsible just too fabulously salacious and horrifyingly fictional to be fact.

It was a media feeding frenzy, and Harding became more famous - or perhaps infamous - than she ever dreamed she could be.

Director Craig Gillespie puts Margot Robbie front and centre, and - along with Allison Janney - they bring an additional crazy to the crazy, unfurling a flamboyantly irreverent and oftentimes confronting cinematic lolly scramble.

It's a pretty fun ride.

Robbie gets an Oscar nod for her Tonya, and at her side breaking balls and breaking the expletive-riddled sound barrier is the profoundly profane Janney in Oscar-winning form as Tonya's mother, LaVona.

Not everything works here. You're either going to love or hate the frequent breaking of the fourth wall a-la Wolf of Wall Street. For me, these mostly haphazard occurrences lacked a consistency to really hit home.

While not quite taking home Olympic gold for me, I, Tonya is no mean feat and far from a disappointment. Along with the Oscar-worthy performances, the film also has an enormous amount to say about a good many important things.

It's certainly a worthy contender for your movie dollar in an awards season crammed with choice.

Four stars.

Newshub.