Film

I, Tonya

A gleeful, brutal mockumentary about the most reviled figure in American sports history, told by everyone lying about her at once. Robbie is ferocious as Harding, breaking the fourth wall to argue her own case while the film undercuts her with cutaway violence and dark slapstick. It's a true-crime comedy that turns into a gut-punch about class and cruelty.

TMDb rating7.5

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The Wolf of Wall Street2013

Same unreliable-narrator trick, same fourth-wall winking, same question of whether a charismatic monster deserves your sympathy just because he's telling the joke. Scorsese at his most gleefully excessive.

But Three hours of a rich man's excess can feel indulgent, and the humour occasionally shades into admiration for the very people it's mocking.

The Wolf of Wall Street poster

Foxcatcher2014

A true story about the ugly collision of ambition, money and a warped surrogate family inside a niche sport, with a slow-building dread that pays off the same class anxieties I, Tonya mines for laughs.

But It plays everything dead serious and glacially paced — no jokes, no relief, just tightening tension toward tragedy.

Foxcatcher poster

Battle of the Sexes2017no page yet

Another true sports story wrestling with class, gender and spectacle, but warmer and more hopeful — a nice counterweight if you want the same terrain without the bruises.

But It's much gentler and more conventional; the stakes and the storytelling swagger are lower across the board.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Raging Bull1980

Both are true-crime sports biographies about brutal domestic violence shaping a brutal athlete, but Raging Bull got there decades earlier and plays it as pure tragedy, not tragicomedy.

Another true story of a working-class athlete whose violence at home and in the ring are the same animal wearing two coats — shot with stark, operatic black-and-white beauty.

But It's punishing and unglamorous, with almost none of the comic relief that makes Tonya's story bearable to sit through.

Raging Bull poster
More like this (8)

Bombshell2019

Robbie again, this time inside another real-life institutional scandal, with the same brisk, dark-comic energy applied to women fighting a system built to discredit them.

But It's more of an ensemble op-ed than a character study, and the corporate setting lacks the visceral physicality of skating or fighting.

Bombshell poster

Molly's Game2017

A whip-smart, self-narrating woman at the centre of her own scandal, defending herself directly to camera against a world eager to flatten her into a punchline.

But Sorkin's dialogue is relentlessly clever in a way that can feel more like a debate than a drama.

Molly's Game poster

Pain & Gain2013no page yet

Michael Bay's trashiest, most unapologetic true-crime comedy, mining working-class desperation and delusion for laughs that curdle exactly the way I, Tonya's do.

But It's cruder and dumber by design, with none of the emotional undertow — pure junk food, on purpose.

The Disaster Artist2017

A tender, very funny biopic about a widely mocked real person reclaiming a shred of dignity from the wreckage of public ridicule.

But The stakes are much lower — embarrassment rather than violence or ruin — so the emotional gut-punch never really lands.

The Disaster Artist poster

Richard Jewell2019no page yet

Another ordinary, unglamorous American chewed up and spat out by the media machine for being an easy story rather than a fair one.

But Eastwood plays it straight and a little sentimental, without the dark comic bite that makes Tonya's version sing.

GoodFellas1990

The blueprint for this kind of storytelling — direct address, a rise-and-fall structure, violence that erupts mid-joke, and narrators you should never quite trust.

But It's a straight crime saga with none of the sports-world specificity or gender politics that give I, Tonya its particular sting.

GoodFellas poster

American Crime Story2016

Same decade, same tabloid feeding frenzy turning a real person into a punchline, but stretched into a TV format that lets the media machine itself become a character.

A ten-hour miniseries that does exactly what I, Tonya does — turns a real media circus into a study of class, spectacle and who America decides to hate — with room to breathe that a two-hour film doesn't have.

But It's a much bigger time commitment, and the tabloid-trial format means slower, more procedural stretches between the fireworks.

American Crime Story poster

Winter's Bone2010

Strip out every joke from I, Tonya and you get this: the same trailer-park America, the same absent men and hard women, played entirely straight.

The same rural, poor, unglamorous America that produced Tonya Harding, shown here completely without jokes — just a teenage girl's grim, quiet fight to survive it.

But It's bleak, slow and offers no comic release whatsoever — a very different evening if you're expecting Tonya's dark humour.

Winter's Bone poster

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