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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I'll start by giving credit where it is due here: There are some really good shots, and the soundtrack also fits them pretty well. In this sense, I can see the artistic value of the film.

That being said, I felt like a lot of context was missing when it came to the story/characters. There were a lot of things that just left me asking "Wait, wtf is happening?" as a watcher who hasn't read the original novel. And maybe with that context, it would have been better, but having watched this expecting an experience with no prior research required, it fell very short. I couldn't figure out the lore of this world when it comes to ghosts, etc. If there even was any. I did appreciate those moments of stereotypical but effective hints in small details, but there seemed to be so much extra added here with absolutely no context to add any emotional depth to the story itself. It was a sort of "I want to like this but the only merits are in the aesthetics of shots and the use of music, I am not actually feeling any emotion for anyone throughout the duration of this story (apart from annoyance and confusion)."

At least it wasn't painfully long; I just kept hoping for something more than what was given. It might just be my personality, but no character was relatable. (And I'm not talking about the stereotypical Hollywood sense; I legitimately just found these portrayals unrealistic and forced, with no explanation and minimal to no context as to what the dynamics were to establish a lot of the "conflicts" that arise in the film.)

The book is probably better, because I can see where there was potential here, but the script, in my opinion, was mostly a waste of my time. At least I did get the nice music and pretty visuals, but still.

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.

A very nice piece of a movie. Sad and disturbing, but not a horror film. This movie should make you think about life and the meaning of it; The way we treat other people around us. It should make us remember our own mistakes and re-think them. It made me remember scenes out of my own school days. I turn almost 40 now, but that makes me sure- everybody above the age of 18, will definitely have similar memories. Love is a big message. Maybe sometimes we love to little or should show our feelings to other people more. I really did like that movie; The characters are well written and the storyline is perfect. Don't watch if you await a horror movie! It's more like a "coming of Age" Drama with a great message.

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.