Jamie Marks Is Dead

Jamie Marks is Dead is an originally told downcast drama about two teens brought together after a classmate is found murdered in a rural town.

Carter Smith writes and directs Jamie Marks is Dead, drawing inspiration and adapting Christopher Barzak's debut novel One for Sorrow.

Jamie Marks is found murdered, naked and discarded amidst the detritus of decaying tree branches along the side of a creek. Classmate Adam becomes sympathetically absorbed in the death of the teenage boy who was not popular and often picked on. He and Gracie, the girl who discovered the body, become close from the murder when Jamie's ghost begins to appear to each of them.

Cameron Monaghan is Adam, the classmate inexplicably drawn to Jamie's death. Monaghan is a budding talent and brings a realistic and unexaggerated angst to the role. Jamie Marks is Dead is about the melancholic connection of the characters and unfortunately Morgan Saylor's Gracie and Noah Silver's Jamie fail to deliver.

Jamie Marks is Dead is original, moody and extremely dark. We examine the character's familial and interpersonal relationships through Jamie's death rather than being a suspenseful mystery to unveil the killer's identity. All the pieces for the plot are there but for some reason it never comes together believably. Adam's preoccupation with Jamie's death seems unfounded, and the character's evolution that yields the resolution seems premature.

The story itself is laid out extremely slowly. Director Carter Smith uses this time to create a gloomy outlook of the characters' world through clear and decisive cinematography. The film is beautiful to look at, capturing the dark and austere bleakness of rural life and balancing it with perfect lighting for watchable scenes.

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This is truly an inspiring story about something more than just being a teenage and how hard can it be for some people. It teaches us that we can find a true friend in the most unlikely of places, that that friend can be someone we never expected. Maybe, if we go deeper, this could be a way to tell us to not waist our time waiting for the right moment, because that moment is now, at every hour, at every minute, at every second.

It's not really a horror movie, but a sad coming-of-age one, with a fantastic and touching storyline, well-played characters and a peaceful soundtrack that makes it slow sometimes but never boring.

I LOVED this movie. It's about a couple of gay teenagers who don't get to know each other until after one of them dies. I don't understand why other online reviewers keep saying how sad it is, because to me it's marvelously positive, encouraging, romantic and satisfying. Those reviewers must think death is a big deal.

The story is fascinating and completely believable, which is extraordinary for a movie about the supernatural. The dialog is always perfect - economical and powerful. The direction, the acting by every actor in every role (especially Liv Tyler as Adam's neurotic mother and Noah Silver as Jamie - he's fantastic in a marvelously sweet, subtle and sexy performance), the cinematography, production design, sound, music, etc, could not be better. This is a fantastic movie.

The only huge flaw is the Frances character. She's unnecessary, contrived, unbelievable and very, very annoying. I almost quit watching when she became such a huge part of the story. The fact that I didn't, and that I'm giving it ten stars in spite of her, is testimony to how very, very good this movie is.

The title is very clear on one thing. Which doesn't mean we don't get to see the character (rather the actor playing that character) on screen. It's a very weird movie with a strange feel to it. It's tough to describe especially because our main character is very inactive and very closed to himself. But that makes him interesting (not only for the viewer but for other characters as you'll see).

You might not agree and find this "boring", which is a possibility and wouldn't be surprising with a movie like this. But if you can stay and stick with this, there is something there that you won't find in many other movies. For better or worse this is different!

One thing that really annoyed me about this movie is the number of times the question was asked 'Why are you naked?' when the subject of discussion was obviously not naked. It's just a sad testament when we have to pretend people are naked in movies instead of just making them naked. Like the girl wearing a bra being the new definition of topless. Might as well put the dude in a bra too, it's just dumb.

Movies in the 70s were even better than that, and today we're supposed to be a more 'progressive' society when obviously we are not. We're a society of Idiocracy and cancelling. And pretending that great Presidents are somehow evil because they look out for their own country FIRST.

Overall, this was a weird movie. Annoying and interesting at times. Since I couldn't really tell if I liked it, and I know I didn't hate it, I'll give it 5/10.