Review of Casting JonBenet (2017) by Brian P — 03 May 2017

I didn't hear about the murder of JonBenet until I saw the trailer back in the fall and it immediatly peaked my interest. JonBenet's murder is as intriguing as Kurt Cobain's "suicide" : there's a lot of things that don't add up, there was a lot of mishandling by the police, and there's no way of knowing what actually happened.

Instead of trying to comfort America, Green probe's at our fear and uncomfortableness of not knowing. She doesn't try to give answers, but makes the audience understand that there is none. Interesting enough, the actors would parallel, or connect, the story of Jonbenet to their own life to draw their conclusions exposing the bias that we all have and potentially making her murder even more eerie.

At the very end of the film, Green has a little girl, playing JonBenet, do a typical pageant performance on the set. At this point this is when the audience realizes that the actresses playing JonBenet were barely featured and throughout our obsession over theorizing and fining the answers we lose sight about the fact a little girl was murdered that day.

If you wanted a typical crime move or another Making a Murder, you'll probably be disappointed. If you want a social commentary about our obsession with a murder then this is for you.