Codes and conventions of I, Tonya
https://youtu.be/rgMYkikgR88?si=8RyG68atpWC9tHw-
I, Tonya opens like a documentary, with Tonya, her ex-husband, and her mother speaking directly to the camera, each giving their own version of events, often contradicting one another then it flashes back to Tonya as a young girl, pushed hard by her mother while learning to skate. From the start, skating is shown as the one thing she can hold onto, the place where she feels talent and control, setting the tone for a life shaped by pressure and high expectations.
Camera work:
The way I, Tonya is filmed makes the story feel personal and chaotic in the best way. The movie switches between typical movie scenes and mock-interview moments where the characters look right into the camera, almost like they're confessing or defending themselves. This style makes you feel like you're being pulled into their drama but at the same time was an uncomfortable and unique experience when watching since not many movies break the fourth wall and make direct eye contact with the camera or speak directly to it. A lot of the shots, especially during Tonya’s childhood and personal life, are filmed with a handheld camera that shakes a bit, which fits the unstable world she comes from. However, when she’s on the ice, the camera suddenly becomes smooth and graceful, following her movements as if it’s skating along with her. It makes those certain scenes feel freeing, like when she’s skating its the only place where she feels like she can relax and breathe, which showcases her relationship with skating in general. Close-up shots appear often too, showing her fear, anger, exhaustion, and frustration in a unique way that feels honest and raw.
Editing:
The editing style for this movie has its own personality as scenes cut quickly, often matching the beat of whatever background music is playing, which brings a sense of energy and intensity. Sometimes the movie even jumps around in its timeline or skips over something, which is a nonlinear timeline, reflecting how messy everyone’s memories are. There are moments where the film freezes on a certain frame, almost like the movie wants you to stop and think about how ridiculous or important something is. A lot of the editing also compares Tonya’s private experience with how the media twisted those same moments, reminding the audience of how the “real story” told to the world wasn’t always Tonya’s reality or even necessarily true.
Sound:
Music plays a big emotional role in the movie. The soundtrack uses memorable songs from the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s that match the mood of each individual scene, sometimes it's fierce, sometimes it emotional, and other times it's ironic. When Tonya skates, the sound is diegetic as the audience can hear her blades, her breath, and the audience. The sounds make the viewer feel a part of Tonya’s skating like you're right next to her on her journey. Characters also narrate parts of the story through voiceovers. This editing technique creates a sense that everyone is trying to rewrite the past in their own favor.
Mise-en-scene:
Tonya’s clothing tells you a lot about her life, her, and her overall mindset. Her skating costumes are often bright, homemade, and imperfect, which shows both her lack of money and her desire to stand out. Her bold makeup and big hair reflect her personality, which is loud, confident, and unapologetic, but also points to how unfairly she was judged for not fitting the “elegant” figure-skater stereotype. Her appearance becomes a symbol of the class divide between her and the people judging her. Small props throughout the film help tell the story as well. Tonya’s skates represent freedom and purpose, something stable she can cling to when everything else is falling apart in her life. Meanwhile, things like beer cans, cigarettes, and guns show the harsh and chaotic environment she was raised in and finds herself later on in life within her marriage. They remind us that her life has always been surrounded by disorder and violence, long before the scandal she finds herself in later on in the movie. The places shown in the film make Tonya’s world feel real to the viewers. Her childhood home and later apartments are small, messy, and worn down, highlighting how financially limited she was. The skating rinks she practices in don't look glamorous either, which contrasts with the pristine rinks and judges' tables during competitions. This contrast makes it obvious that Tonya was constantly trying to break into a world she was never truly welcomed into.
Narrative codes:
The movie doesn’t tell the story in a straight line of chronological events but instead follows a non-linear storyline. The story jumps back and forth between interviews, past events, and dramatic memories. This style mirrors the reality of the Tonya Harding scandal, which is confusing, chaotic, and constantly being retold from different perspectives. It encourages viewers to piece together their own understanding instead of being handed a single, simple version of the truth. The unreliable narration is one of the most interesting parts of the story since the characters openly contradict each other, which is never really explored in other films. Their narration is biased, conflicting, and exaggerated, and the film doesn’t shy away from it. This makes the viewer question how stories are shaped, how memory works, and how easily the media can twist things. It also reminds the audience that in real life, people rarely agree on what happened. Although the movie deals with painful topics such as manipulation, abuse, and trauma, it uses dark humor to highlight how absurd the whole situation was. The humor doesn’t take away from the seriousness but instead shows how ridiculous and unfair the public’s obsession with the scandal quickly became. Comedy becomes a way to expose the cruelty behind thousands of headlines. Even though the movie is based on a real person, it doesn’t follow the typical “tragic hero” or “inspirational athlete” format. Instead, it presents Tonya as flawed, complicated, and human. It digs into the classism and judgement she faced during that period of her life, the violence she grew up around, and the way the media painted her into a villain. The film refuses to tell a one-sided story, making Tonya feel real rather than symbolic.
Genre Conventions
The film fits into the biographical drama because it follows Tonya Harding's life and emotional journey. It focuses on the relationships, scandals, and challenges that really shaped her and not just her career accomplishments and success. The interview-style scenes, fourth wall breaks, and documentary-like framing make the movie feel like a hybrid between a drama and a mockumentary. This allows characters to speak directly to the audience, adding humor and making the story feel self-aware of its chaoticness.
How I, Tonya fits the Drama Genre:
I, Tonya fits the drama genre because it tells a story that’s emotionally heavy, complicated and deeply personal. The movie doesn’t just walk the audience through what happened in Tonya Harding’s career; it lets you feel the weight of everything she went through. You see her growing up in a harsh, abusive environment, trying to escape it through skating, and then dealing with a relationship that only adds more chaos to her life. Even though the film uses humor at times, the heart of the story is serious and raw. It shows Tonya constantly fighting for respect while dealing with people and situations she can’t control. The emotional ups and downs, the pressure, and the pain behind her public image all come together to create a story that feels dramatic, honest, and very human. At its core, I, Tonya uses creative storytelling, energetic editing, symbolic visuals, and conflicting voices to paint a picture of a girl who grew up fighting an unfair system and a world ready to judge her. Instead of choosing one simple version of the story, the movie shows Tonya as a layered, wounded, talented, and misunderstood person. Through its mix of humor, drama, and documentary style, the film reveals how class, trauma, and the media shaped the Tonya Harding narrative and how complicated the truth really is.
Tonya’s mindset in I, Tonya is a lot like what we see with the main characters in Black Swan and Whiplash, like Nina, Tonya grows up feeling intense pressure to be perfect, never quite measuring up to others no matter how hard she tries, and like Andrew, she believes that success demands total dedication, extreme effort, and the ability to endure people who push her too far. For all three, their sense of self becomes tied to their talent, and they’re driven by a mix of ambition, fear, and the need to prove themselves. This makes their journeys intense and emotionally exhausting, showing how passion and pressure can shape someone's whole life. There’s a specific scene in the movie that hits especially hard as it highlights how consumed by her craft Tonya has been for her whole life. The moment when the judge tells Tonya she can never skate again, and she instantly falls apart. It’s not just disappointment you see reflected on her face but the realization that the one steady thing in her life is being ripped away from her hands. Skating was all she ever had to hold onto. It was the place where she felt strong, talented, and free when everything around her was chaos. From a young age, she was taught that her value came from how well she performed on the ice, so when that is taken from her, it feels like her entire identity and purpose are collapsing. All the years of being pushed, all the sacrifices she made, all the pain she endured; it all flooded to the surface in that very moment. Her breakdown is the reaction of someone who realizes, in an instant, that everything she’s fought for, everything she sacrificed, and everything she thought would carry her through her life has suddenly vanished. Her breakdown is not just about losing a career but about losing the only part of herself that she thought she was good at. Tonya, Nina, and Andrew’s journey is exhausting, mentally draining and so demanding that my film opening character’s life will be because she decides to devote her entire life to her studies.
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