Casting JonBenet

Mixes the worst part of UNSOLVED MYSTERIES with the worst part of being a local casting director.

Now gather round for I will tell you how I think a child was murdered wait no come back put the camera on meeee

In which wannabe actor suburbanites rationalize their participation in an endeavor that is largely just themselves speculating wildly and irresponsibly about a tragedy.

Seemed kind of exploitative, seeing as it was just a bunch of Boulder "actors", talking about what they remember about the case. Digging up old bones for profit is all this is.

This documentary is just about redeemed by the remarkable final reenactment, when the focus also shifts from JonBenet's murder to the motives of the actors involved. But I can't help thinking the entire thing is wildly misjudged. The film is quite intelligent in the way it explores alternative versions of events and the nature of performance. But fundamentally it treats the brutal murder of a 6-year-old child as entertainment (and often quite campy entertainment).

Fascinatingly constructed documentary has an interesting conceit: actors ostensibly auditioning for roles in a dramatisation of the Ramsay case use their audition to speculate from the ground level about the case's details. Ultimately more interesting as a casting director case study as we see the multiple candidates bring their own wide-ranging interpretations to the same roles and material, the film ultimately feels too cold, impersonal and somewhat aimless to be entirely successful.

It's an interesting concept to watch actors take on roles of real people and try and understand their motives as most actors would, the twist being, that these actors are focusing on their characters behaviours leading up to the death of 6 year old JonBenet. We see theories ranging from the outrageous (pedophile sex rings) to more balanced claims made by the amateur actors. Shades of Oppenheimer's work in Indonesia with continuation of this fresh new take on the documentary genre.

I have actually never seen a movie quite like this. Such an interesting approach.

It's a good thing the documentary is interesting because the actual movie they were casting for looks like garbage

You have to admire the creativity of the whole endeavor. You should go into it realizing you're not going to learn anything about the JonBenet case, but plenty about these random Boulder-area aspiring actors.

This is participatory and reflexive docudrama filmmaking in the great tradition of Peter Watkins. As such, it’s not a documenting of the (in)famous case, but rather a form of communal therapy for those non-professional actors as members of the local community to transform their relationship with those tragic events. This is only possible because Kitty Green (she's an Aussie) refuses to employ any file footage whatsoever, so that the ‘real’ JonBenét, Burke, John and Pattsy are entirely absent.

Weird. Dress a bunch of kids up as the murdered kid and docuseries it

Who played who? What happened in the case? This film does not document what happened. It is merely second rate actors portraying the individuals involved. Therefore, it is not a documentary. If it is, it's fucking awful.

Bir belgeselden neredeyse hicbir sey ogrenmemeyi goze alabilirseniz, yenilikci ve cesur tarziyla fark yaratmayi basariyor.

Casting Jonbenet has frequent shocking scenes of abrupt beauty, humor, and sadness. The impact of the famous unsolved case has on the town's residents is much more than a superficial one. A film of this subject matter has no right to be as gorgeously shot as this is.

Brilliant and original storytelling where memories and opinions are key.

I like the idea of this more than the execution, about 10 minutes in I was unnerved and loving it but it just kept going and got boring

I will say, I can see why this didn't have to be made... but I am really glad it did. While it didn't bring to light any new information on the case whatsoever, it's a good summary done in an amazing and novel light. The idea of casting a movie to tell a story is super cool and is extremely well done. An easy recommendation for someone with only an idea of the case.

Certainly interesting and a fresh concept on the unsolved crime documentary genre but it comes across as rather self-indulgent and bordering incoherent on occasion and overall it just seems a bit too 'artsy' for my tastes.