![A legendary casting director is getting his own doc, but it might be more fawning than insightful [Venice] – newsdubai](https://cdn.theplaylist.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/08160648/77531-BONNIE_-_Actress_Bonnie_Timmermann__5_.jpg "A legendary casting director is getting his own doc, but it might be more fawning than insightful [Venice] – newsdubai")
A legendary casting director is getting his own doc, but it might be more fawning than insightful [Venice] – newsdubai
Although she may not be a household name compared to the directors she has worked for, Bonnie Timmerman‘s IMDb reads like a decade-spanning watchlist of some of the best movies ever made. The legendary casting director behind “The Karate Kid,” “Manhunter,” “Bull Durham,” “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “Armageddonand about a hundred other movies that you’ve seen get a serious, if not exactly insightful, documentary about her work in Simon Wallooncreeps”Bonnie.”
Using direct interviews with Timmermann, as well as friends and colleagues, and never-before-seen audition tapes, “Bonnie” is perhaps more interesting for what it reveals about the audition process than anything about Bonnie herself — who oddly remains a cipher despite movies ostensibly about her.
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Instead, we get vague platitudes of Timmermann’s approach to casting, which often used a combination of disarming conversation and combative energy to reveal how an actor would react to a given script or the director’s temperament. Timmermann describes himself as both an “explorer” and as someone who “arranges marriages” between director and actor.
The film mainly follows Timmermann’s career chronologically as she reflects on her early days in the New York theater world before being hired by Michael Mann to cast for “Miami police” in the 80s. There she had massive success casting a number of unknowns in guest star roles, including Julia Roberts, Chris Rock, Bruce Willis, Leg Still, Steve Buscemi, Chris Cooper, Benecio Del Toroand almost every other famous actor from the 90s and 00s.
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Her work with Mann, Michael Bay, Tony and Ridley Scott, and Derek Cianfrance, gets the most coverage as Timmerman is described by various actors as someone who worked well with traditionally ‘masculine’ directors, offsetting their energy. And there are many actors who speak in this documentary, as Wallon gives plenty of time to Del Toro, Laurence Fishburne, Mary Louise Parker, Liam Neeson, Giancarlo Esposito, Rosie O’Donnell, Laura Linney, Sigourney Weaveretc. to talk about their experiences with Timmermann.
Most, Mark Ruffalo especially only compliments. Although the most fascinating bits of the doc are when actors push back against Timmerman’s personal probing. Viggo Mortensen refuses to answer her questions, Zack Galifianakis looks visibly uncomfortable, and Vincent Gallo does, well, the type of thing you’d expect from him.
Those audition tapes are really the reason to recommend “Bonnie,” as it’s consistently fascinating to watch Ruffalo read for William Fincher part in “Armageddon” or Kate Winslet to Natalie Portman role in “Heat.” Wondering about the various permutations and what-ifs that make up each film in Timmermann’s oeuvre gives a sense of what her job really is—constructing a puzzle without knowing exactly the shape of each piece.
Her uncanny ability to spot up-and-coming talent is something that could have been explored more as it is often reduced to montages of the various actors she discovered. As for Timmermann, she is evasive. We end up knowing little about her personal life (other than the fact that she dated Leonard Cohenleading to a guest star spot on “Miami Vice”).
Timmermann has had the kind of career that can and should culminate in the kind of career-spanning documentary that “Bonnie” aspires to. One only wishes it was more focused on unpacking the woman behind these casting videos instead of playing the greatest hits. Still, Wallon’s documentary has enough behind-the-scenes material that, for the film obsessed, there is enough to spark some interest. [C+]
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