True/False Film Festival 2017: CASTING JONBENET – Review

One needs only to hear the name JonBenet to conjure up images of a young girl that was found murdered in her home in 1996. The horrifying case created a social frenzy triggered by a media circus surrounding the family. Was it the parents who killed their daughter? Was the mom covering up an accident caused by her son? Was there a shadowy figure who perpetrated the crime? Twenty years later, we are no closer to the truth and the case still lingers deep in our minds.

Director Kitty Green uses the public’s fascination with the murder of JonBenet Ramsey to hold a mirror to our own lives; to make us question our sick fascination with the death of a young girl; to show us that we may not have the idyllic American lives we think we do. All of us have dark secrets that may not be too far from the family dysfunction we project upon the Ramsey family, and it’s through Kitty Green’s unique structure that we’re forced to look at ourselves instead of a filtered presentation of the “facts” by the media.

Those going into CASTING JONBENET might be expecting to see interviews with the men and women who worked on the case and pageant footage of JonBenet. However, Green subverts expectations by focusing instead on the people who lived in the surrounding area when the murder happened. The film shows the residents of Boulder auditioning to play a part in a JonBenet movie, while intercutting scenes from the fake film that they’re auditioning for. Through these comedic and extremely candid interviews, we learn of their personal opinions on the case as well as secrets buried in their own lives.

JonBenet’s death is intentionally not exploited like the tv specials and movies that Green seems to be satirizing – her image is barely shown outside of the young girls who are dressed for the part. It’s in these surreal images of seven JonBenet’s all lined up in matching dresses that we become aware of just how problematic it is that there’s a cultural phenomena surrounding a girl’s death. And she’s not the only one. There are so many cases where the media’s attention and coverage is less about the search for truth and more for entertainment purposes. By the end of this complicated multi-layered documentary, the film shifts and begins to look like a David Lynch film come to life. We are faced with the image we want to see: the dark American story of the underbelly of suburbia. We are less interested in the truth and are simply seeing it as a form of gross entertainment.

CASTING JONBENET perfectly balances dark satire with raw and simulated emotion. It’s one of the most unique and complicated documentaries I’ve ever seen and a complex exploration of truth. In short, it’s a masterpiece. Green’s audacious presentation becomes about the very act of storytelling and how we choose to interpret the facts. In an era where the phrase alternative facts exists, CASTING JONBENET is here to remind us that we may not actually be interested in knowing the truth – we just want to be entertained by the headlines.

Overall rating: 5 out of 5

CASTING JONBENET will be premiering on Netflix on April 28th