Jamie Marks Is Dead
Jamie Marks Is Dead
NR | 28 July 2014 (USA)
Jamie Marks Is Dead Trailers

No one seemed to care about Jamie Marks until after his death. Hoping to find the love and friendship he never had in life, Jamie’s ghost visits former classmate Adam McCormick, drawing him into the bleak world between the living and the dead.

Reviews
Steineded How sad is this?
KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Brenda The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Sam Daaxi Jamie Marks is Dead is an oddly thrilling movie. It is not a fast film by any stretch of the imagination, but I do not think the movie should be criticized only on its speed.The name of the piece may seem like a massive spoiler, but since you see the corpse of Jamie within the first few minutes of footage, I would say otherwise. I assumed the film to be a horror of some sort, but I was very wrong. Yes, there are supernatural elements, but that is not the central theme. I believe it was created to make you think and re-evaluate how you treat your fellow human, especially during high school; you don't know what a person is going through.Adam, I found was a well-fleshed out character. He was moody, but not unbelievably so. His home life was unpleasant at best, with a wheelchair-bound mother, the woman that made her so constantly around, and a brother who despises him. He's not a popular boy, nor is he unpopular, he's simply there. He does run at school, which is his saving grace at school, the one thing he has talent in. I think he is still in the process of discovering himself, and discovering his sexuality, which I think is explored with Jamie. He's very much a believable character.Jamie, I found I sympathized a lot with, as I was bullied in high school. And I think although this is a pure assumption, I think one of the reasons he was bullied so relentlessly could have been to the fact he was debating his sexuality. He obviously had a crush on Adam and admired him from afar. I think they are quite alike, in my opinion. I think Adam was aware, during their time together, of how Jamie felt about him. And he never took advantage of that; I think Adam was exploring it too. I do think there was a gay tinge to their friendship, and it is done in such a way that it isn't made to feel forced, but rather a natural evolution of their friendship. And the fact that Jamie was more alive when he was dead should not be ignored.I think it is a great thought provoker, and it's one of my favorite movies in this genre. Reminded me of Let the Right One In, in its pacing.
ergot4 Spoiler alert: You may want to watch the movie before continuing much farther. I will say without giving too much away that the pace of the movie is slow, but worth the watch regardless. We're too used to the "action packed" fast moving white bread standard Hollywood fare for some to stick with a slow but well crafted piece such as this. But I found it anything but boring. Here's a spoiler, one you will encounter soon into the movie, but you may want to watch before reading my thoughts. I was thrown a bit by the hanging dead fawn. I may have missed something, but never to my knowledge was any allusion made of it in the film. It was a bit of a distraction, wanting to make sense of it while trying to take in the plot line. Here's my take on it. Unless someone was engaged in illegal hunting and too lazy to tend to the game during the movie's duration, the reasonable conclusion is that this was a victim of the driver. The brother does seem to be a bit of a thug type in his actions (pushing the mother out of the way to enter the house after beating on his brother, though the beating was provoked) so he may simply have been the hunter. But if run over it is evidence of prior knowledge of the drunk driver's carelessness (she is referred to as being drunk when she hit the mother by Adam) and was hung there as a cautionary message for her, apparently ignored. This makes the accident somewhat more inevitable, I think. And about that- the mother did back into the roadway at a fast clip, in a hurry, so even though there is little sympathy shown for her other than by the mother, the driver was not entirely at fault. One thing I must counter after reading another review. I don't think the relationship between Adam and Jamie has anything to do with homosexuality. It is a deep friendship that we see develop, nothing more and nothing less. That is the theme, seen also in the friendship, though too lightly explored, between the mother and the driver who "paralyzed her." Gracie's character is there to counter this conclusion. Adam is very interested in her sexually, though every encounter we see is abruptly- frustratingly, for him, ended prematurely (always due to Jamie's presence, in some way, but not because of the "gay thing" but the need to work out his presence on a very different level. Jamie first appears to her, not Adam. He is drawn to her as the person who discovered his body. But she wants nothing to do with him, she makes this very clear, and does her best to instill this feeling into Adam. Adam sees him and is drawn to him because he was sympathetic to Jamie's plight when Jamie was being harassed by the boys at the school, but he did not act to help Jamie, which is why he is compelled to help him later, out of guilt. Jamie is I think not so much jealous of Adam when he is with Gracie, but jealous of the relationship, before his friendship with Adam solidifies. And Jamie has a relationship with Frances which verges on something boy-girl, certainly very caring when he takes her from Adam's house. The love aspect spoken of by Gracie that Jamie needs is something beyond the sexual, the "love a man can have for a man" a quote from Miller's "All My Sons" referring to the bond of soldiers in war, nothing to do with sexuality, or beyond sexuality. I'll just sum up at this point. I see many levels to this film, with the relationships working in developing the theme that culminates in Adam and Jamie, their relationship and moving on with their respective paths. Quite an unusual movie experience in many ways, and well worth waiting out the pace of the film. Just one further note, concerning the "note." Somehow, according to some questions I have seen the upshot of it was missed by some. The big spoiler: Jamie did indeed commit suicide. Gracie hid the note because she did not want his death to be trivialized due to its being suicide. So, while Gracie could not or would not deal with Jamie's presence, as a ghost, she was sympathetic towards him, as a person.
adi_2002 A local boy is tormented by the ghost of a young man who was killed some time ago. Watching this for about 30 minutes for me was interesting but after I reacher 80 minutes I had to stop it because I was bored. The idea is good combining mystery with horror elements although is not a scary film but when I see a ghost immediately I think of the horror genre. This is more like a drama with sad elements in it. Still there are some flaws about the death of Jamie is not elaborate the viewer known only that he was murdered. The young cast did their jobs very good because the acting was tolerable. The dark atmosphere adds some extra chills, but even so it doesn't save the boring story, those long scenes made me finish the film in the second day. If you are a patience person then this is for you.Bottom line, a movie with both good and bad parts witch made me lower my vote cause of the boredom.
obit213-394-42220 I found this eerie story of a dead boy returning to the living in order to find love and friendship.....different and poignant. I do, however, have one complaint to make. There was no need whatsoever to show the fawn hanging from the goalpost! It has nothing to do with the plot and I found it disturbing. Cruelty to animals is real enough without using it in a film.Please, producers and directors, don't use cruelty to animals in your films; it distracts me to the point I don't want to finish watching the movie, and I am not alone.Thank you for considering my request.