Jamie Marks Is Dead
In a small town, the body of Jamie Marks, a teenager nobody really knew or interacted with except occasionally to bully, is found by the river. His ghost is then seen by two high school students: Gracie Highsmith, who discovered the body, and Adam McCormick, the star of his cross-country team who becomes fascinated with Jamie. Adam then is caught between two worlds, the spirit and material one when he and Jamie begin a loving but platonic relationship.
2 October 1962, Berkeley, California, USA
1 July 1977, New York City, New York, USA
23 October 1992, Bristol, Connecticut, USA
2 August 1988, Lakeland, Florida, USA
20 July 1975, Detroit, Michigan, USA
16 August 1993, Santa Monica, California, USA
26 October 1994, Chicago, Illinois, USA
August 26, 2014
It's a film that I liked more when no one was speaking, getting into the atmosphere of this world without having to deal with the awkward plotting within it.August 26, 2014
Writer-director Carter Smith sets a brooding, chilly atmosphere, but he also writes opaquely vague dialogue and includes in a subplot involving Adam's mother (Liv Tyler) that goes nowhere.August 30, 2014
Unpredictable, atmospheric and enigmatic. This isn't your average coming-of-age film which makes it all the more refreshing, unique and un-Hollywood.August 27, 2014
The film uses its phantasmagoric conceit, a sickly-hued poetry, and eerie sound design to build metaphors for closeted homoeroticism and melancholic unfulfillment.June 21, 2016
It may have more brains behind it than The Ruins, but hopefully Smith can find material truly worthy of his technical talents with his next feature.August 27, 2014
Writer-director Carter Smith got his start as a successful fashion photographer. But you wouldn't know it from the murky look of this generic thriller.August 29, 2014
It is likely to test the patience of many viewers.August 29, 2014
A nifty little sleeper in the vein of DONNIE DARKO.August 28, 2014
Temperate in tone but screaming with subtext, "Jamie Marks Is Dead" climbs above the current glut of supernaturally inclined entertainment by dint of a hushed unease that permeates almost every frame.January 21, 2014
The potentially ludicrous story is handled artfully enough here to cast an eerie but not off-putting spell throughout, though the ultimate point is more than a tad murky, and the desired poignancy doesn't fully come across.August 29, 2014
"Jamie Marks Is Dead" admirably refuses to hew to conventional horror tropes and is acted with integrity by its young performers, but the film nonetheless has a nagging pulse problem.