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<\/a>\u201cI want to talk to you about America,\u201d says Channing Tatum\u2019s Mark Schultz dispassionately to an unenthusiastic auditorium of elementary schoolers at the outset of Foxcatcher<\/i>. Steven Rogers could have just as easily cribbed the line to begin his script for I, Tonya<\/i>. Though much of the discussion around that film (directed by Craig Gillespie) has centered on whether its dizzying pans and hyperactive needle drops recall Scorsese (if you\u2019re charitable) or David O. Russell (if you\u2019re feeling less so), its thematic kinship with Bennett Miller\u2019s 2014 feature deserves some serious scrutiny.<\/span><\/p>\nYes, Miller\u2019s chilly emotional remove and precise framing feels miles apart from Gillespie\u2019s careening camera and jarring tonal swings. But Foxcatcher<\/i> and I, Tonya<\/i> function as opposite sides of the same coin, examining the all-American striver through the lens of culture and sport before arriving at an unsettling conclusion about what the country seeks from its competitors.<\/span><\/p>\n Both Foxcatcher<\/i>\u2019s John du Pont (Steve Carell) and I, Tonya\u2019s <\/i>Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie) are black sheep in the world of Olympic athletics, made to be pariahs either for their class or in their class. Harding could nail figure skating moves so complex that I, Tonya<\/i> had to recreate them in CGI<\/span><\/a> because the production could not find a stunt double capable of executing them. Yet she still placed behind less proficient skaters because the subjective scores of the judges dinged her for not falling in line with the wholesome, pristine routines they expected. \u201cYou\u2019re representing our country, for goodness\u2019 sake,\u201d a judge tells her off the record. \u201cWe need to see a wholesome American family.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Du Pont, on the other hand, descended from dynastic wealth and lived on an estate dedicated to training thoroughbred racehorses. But as an oddball whose passions as a self-described \u201cornithologist, philatelist, philanthropist\u201d never quite jelled with the chosen sport of the upper crust, he seeks validation in sponsoring the sport of wrestling. Even though he attracts Olympian Mark Schultz to compete under the banner of Team Foxcatcher, his mother, Jean (Vanessa Redgrave), remains unimpressed despite his insistence that the Medici-like patronage helps promote American values. \u201cIt [wrestling] is a low sport,\u201d she remarks, \u201cand I don\u2019t like to see you being low.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n For both individuals, their sport of choice becomes a proving ground in which they can blur \u2014 if not erase entirely \u2014 the class distinctions that frame it. With her defiant routines set to rock anthems rather than classical standards, Harding seeks to force the stodgy judges to uphold the meritocratic ideals of the sport. Unable to afford the necessary attire to project the ice princess ideal, she doubles down on her \u201cwhite trash\u201d origins. They will either accept her as she is or not at all.<\/span><\/p>\n Neither Harding or du Pont is particularly \u201clikable\u201d in the traditional sense. They inspire revulsion, or perhaps pity, before they invite sympathy. But both seek nothing less than the fulfillment of the American Dream, the promise that the right alchemy of perspiration, inspiration, and dedication can overcome any obstacle. (And as Olympic competitors, they are literally representing their country.) I, Tonya<\/i> and Foxcatcher<\/i> deliberately strain to see how deeply we hold this ideal by presenting difficult test cases. The films thrive on the energy drawn from the dissonance between our values and our gut feelings.<\/span><\/p>\n These protagonists are aware that their stories are far from the crowd-pleasing Horatio Alger yarns, so they utilize filmed media and direct address to recast themselves as heroes to an otherwise doubtful public. In this medium, they repackage their prickly personas and wrap themselves in the American flag to contextualize their actions. I, Tonya<\/i> frames the skater\u2019s life story through the lens of (according to the onscreen titles) \u201cirony-free, wildly contradictory, totally true interviews\u201d with Harding herself, in which she declares her innocence and decries her victimization at the jaws of a blood-thirsty country. Du Pont, on the other hand, finances his own puff piece so he can pontificate about his status as a benevolent Medici of the wrestling world \u2014 and even wields it as a cudgel to get rival power center Dave Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) to declare him a mentor.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>He only cheers on from the stands, but du Pont has plenty at stake in the wrestling ring when Schultz and his teammates compete. His quest centers less around individual glory and more around the acceptance of wrestling as a respectable avenue for competition. Eschewing the elite breeding and exclusivity of horse racing, du Pont immerses himself in wrestling because he views it as a projection of American might and strength. There\u2019s no pageantry, pomp, or circumstance in the sport. Just a pure, unadulterated physical brawl where brute strength wins.<\/span><\/p>\n