Given the media’s prominent role in shaping the narrative of the Harding-Kerrigan story, it’s no surprise the film I, Tonya, in wide release January 5, is designed to emulate a news documentary. The major players tell their (often conflicting) sides of the story through Q&A sessions with an unnamed interlocutor. Tonya Harding — played by Margot Robbie — often turns fiercely to the camera, and directly speaks to the audiences sitting in theater chairs, munching on popcorn, and reliving the spectacle that had dominated news channels at the start of 1994. The movie’s Harding knows people are watching now, because they were always watching then. And according to I, Tonya, the audience is still watching.
