But that doesn’t bother Green. The levity, though, is expertly layered into something more revealing. The small number of images of JonBenét herself in the film will probably confound some Netflix viewers who watch it expecting to relive the case. In other words, this is a film about the prospective cast, not about JonBenét. One woman lost three children. “In cases like that, it is always somebody you know,” another actress, a woman who speaks of being sexually abused as a child, states plainly. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. The glee with which some place themselves about those of whose child-rearing they disapprove is, while somewhat understandable, a bad look at best and moderately disgusting at worst. In fact, some of the film's most honest and gripping moments aren't even about the case. Beloved Names and Incantatory Powers: heidi andrea restrepo rhodes’s, Wanted/Needed/Loved: Thurston Moore’s 12-String Guitar, Rumpus Original Poetry: Three Poems by Joumana Altallal, Rumpus Original Fiction: The Bad Kind of Puppy, Conversations with Literary Ex-Cons: Gustavo Alvarez. As the case remains unsolved and, though discussed exhaustively in the media by anchors and commentators, undramatized, there are still a lot of lingering narratives and feelings about what happened 20 years ago in Boulder, Colorado. Separate from the case itself, this alone makes Casting JonBenet worth seeing, as it could be de-isolating for those who worry their experiences are unique and thus not understandable. The case is also (in)famously unsolved. In other words, this is a film about the prospective cast, not about JonBenét. The Ramseys essentially become a litmus test for understanding. Kayleigh Roberts is the weekend editor at Marie Claire, covering celebrity and entertainment news, from actual royals like Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle to Hollywood royalty, like Katie Holmes and Chrissy Teigen. But ubiquity is not the same as relevance. We work to shine a light on stories that build bridges, tear down walls, and speak truth to power. He…. As the actors dig deep, mining their personal lives for experiences to inform their performances, they come to empathize with a family they were ruthlessly gossiping about just moments before. Jay appears in the hybrid documentary Casting JonBenet. Your support is critical to our existence. Even more to the point, it is a film about us societally more than it is about them specifically. True crime dramas create the illusion of involvement, be it for the audience, or in the case of Casting JonBenét, the auditioning actors. Or do we use stories like JonBenét’s and Christine Chubbuck’s to make sense of the brokenness of our own lives? Celebs Join the #MyNameIs Movement on Twitter, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant, and 1 Cheeky Zoom Call, Marie Claire's Guide to the 2020 Election, The Trending Colors on the Spring '21 Runways, An Expert on How to Wear Eye Makeup Behind Glasses. The film has a non-narrative format, patience-testing repetition, and formal choices that reflect and support the content, such as the auditions being shot in 4:3, perhaps as a subconscious signifier of our ’90s TV sets. It can. How do they come to terms with something that is, basically, one giant question mark, or a mystery?”. Many would point to media manipulation as the root cause of our selective outrage; that is to say, what news outlets choose to cover and ignore determines what we fixate on. “Before we dressed them all up, I'd give them a 15-minute spiel about how I envisioned the film coming together. The lack of self-awareness employed while spitting this societally condoned vitriol demonstrates that these opinions are less about the Ramseys themselves, and more about a community eager to say “well at least I’m not like them“. She had something else in mind. Sign up to get our cinematic goodness delivered to your inbox every weekend. Released just over a year following the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the process of conceiving the film must have begun in the days after the event itself, lest the narrative be solidified in the collective consciousness in some other fashion that might call into question the story that torture led the successful mission.