First things first: Lady Bird hasn't been released over here in the UK yet.
Secondly: Are you really going to begrudge Allison Janney an Oscar?
Then this FYC, by all accounts, is an unbiased endorsement of Allison Janney for Best Supporting Actress.
Allison Janney, as Tonya Harding's mother, in any other year, would have Film Twitter and Gay Twitter right behind her, and yet we hesitate. Janney is razor-sharp as LaVona Golden, whose love is more brutal than merely just tough. But as we have determined, this year there's a problem, and it's the problem of parallels...
Laurie Metcalf and Allison Janney are both esteemed on the stage and on (the smaller) screen. Both have Emmys, though Janney has more. Both are Tony nominees, but only Metcalf is a winner. And both are playing mothers of determined, headstrong daughters. While Janney may have the one liners, Metcalf has daughters all over the country calling their mothers. Janney's performance in I,Tonya may well have the same effect for other reasons.
There are many ways we can be happy if/when Janney goes up to collect her Oscar. Her role in I,Tonya shows off her more uproarious talents, as her role as CJ on The West Wing did on occasion. But look closer at I,Tonya and you'll see a performance that depends so much on watching the action, rather than participating in it. Janney's stillness is another of her defining qualities. Remember the near-silent gravitas she had in American Beauty? And her one scene in Kenneth Lonergan's muddled masterpiece, Margaret, that sends the whole story in motion and etches itself on the mind?
I,Tonya's LaVona may be abusive, and crass, and cruel. But she is also the heroine in her own tragedy. LaVona elicits laughter: a mix of the nervous variety and a dirty cackle (depending on your screening). But for me, her most memorable moments were not what she was unleashing, but what she was containing. While Tonya is performing miracles on ice, LaVona watches, not from the sidelines, ready to share in Tonya's victory or console her in defeat, but from the bleachers. LaVona wouldn't be able to console her, or even celebrate in fact. She says whatever gives her the upper hand, but is forced into silence when she has nothing. As she watches her daughter at Lillehammer, clutching a drink in a crowded bar, she's forced into being just one of the spectators. Janney makes you question what could even give her satisfaction: seeing her daughter succeed, or fall flat on her ass?
Janney captures the twisted, knotted life of a toxic, tragic person. Yes, she plays it large. But she saves this character from merely being a one-dimensional villain, even if by all accounts she was. You can't dismiss her on a technicality. She deserves it.