I, Tonya + Intro

An emotional rollercoaster featuring a toxic mother/daughter relationship that matches some of the very best. I Tonya could be a modern day Mommie Dearest!

Based on the true story of US figure skater Tonya Harding, reviled as the blue-collar, white-trash, black-hearted villain who at the very least attempted to cover up her ex-husband Jeff’s grotesque assault on her rival skater Nancy Kerrigan.

Margot Robbie gives a fantastically uninhibited performance as Tonya, fighting her way to the top from humble beginnings with Allison Janney as LaVona, Tonya’s chain-smoking mom-slash-personal manager who believes in the motivational power of abuse.

Sebastian Stan plays the part of Jeff Gillooly with a hint of benign goofiness. He’s a sleaze ball in a turtleneck and a porn moustache. But as his violent side emerges and his emotional hold on Tonya strengthens, he’s positively chilling—and your heart breaks for her all over again, because you know that no matter where she goes, she’s trapped.

"A gruelling film that finds such an unlikely anti-heroine in Tonya to detail U.S. sexism, abuse and bigotry. " _{Christy Lemiere, 90%, Rotten Tomatoes}

Melodrama tells intimate and familial stories, a rare cinematic form that concerns itself with women's inner lives repeatedly dismissed by critics that found the outpouring of emotion 'too much'

Yet these films and the legacy of 'womens' pictures' carry searing social commentary beneath a glossy veneer. Imperfectly feminist yet endlessly relatable, come to the cinema to reconsider what, if anything, is 'too much'.

Hosted by Bronte and Nuala Eley, Young Electrics who will introduce the screening with an introduction to Mother/Daughter Films and explore the concept of the Bechdel Test to measure how female-centric a film really is.

Supported by BFI FAN and National Lottery funding and co-curated by Young Electrics. 

Co-curated and hosted by the Young Electrics as part of Too Much: Melodrama on Film a UK-wide celebration of exaggerated staging, score and performance to create the ultimate spectacle.

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