Light Camera Jackson: Sure Dad Isn't Getting In On It?

This years awards season was full of a lot of different movie camps. The Revenant Camp who believed it was high time DiCaprio won his Oscar. Then there was the Mad Max die hards who believe that it was best movie of the year, of course eliminating Star Wars 7 from the list, because lets face it, its too epic to compare to anything else. In the end, the big winner of the season, the movie that took home best picture at the Oscars was a movie that totally outside of the critics radar. As I watched some of the articles being published before and after the shows I started seeing a name over and over. 

Lights Camera Jackson, a movie review blog that is being written by a teenager. I was curious to read what a teenager thought of such adult subjects films that typically are nominated in the big award shows. Whats cute about this kid, is that he gives movies basic school grades A to F. Now don’t get me wrong it’s kind of expected to give grades but when you click on the scores to see what movies he gave his high marks. I was a little apprehensive to continue exploring considering the kids gave the top score to such movies as the Simpson’s Movie and Cars. 

I decided to give a good search test on some serious movies to see what his reviews were. Now, first up was the more recent August, Osage County staring Meryl Streep and Julia Robers. This movie was simply raw and brutally honest and sad. Now I will agree the movie really doesn’t do the play great justice but it’s a great movie and after reading over his review I found it suspect when he referred to Streeps performance excusable (“Streep aside”) he considered the rest of the cast and the movie as a whole a “Masterful Mess”. I am suspect because this kid was 15 when he wrote this review and I am not sure I would even want my 16 year old kid to watch the movie. Not mention, I doubt this kid has seen every movie in Streep’s arsenal to really make such a judgement to exclude her from the “mess”.

I then decided to check on the review of The Danish Girl and found his review rather odd. He did give the movie a B, although I would have personally put it in the realm of B+ - A-. What was interesting is that Jackson’s review proved he has a lot to learn about cinema. Right now he has no understanding about art direction and cinematography. The review reads like an uncomfortable straight mans crib notes for the film he would never plan on seeing, calling Redmayne’s portrayal as his eyes, cold. Then it clicked. I checked other reviews about similar subjects and they also read awkward and completely devoid of the great beauty on screen with the camera eye, set design and staging. Which leads me to question, is this young lad writing all these reviews. Jackson’s review such as these make me wonder if dad, who was visibly present at all those awards shows, well into his son’s camera shot, might be a contributing factor here. 

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great this teenager is blossoming in the industry, I just worry that his parents may have a hand somewhere in this bucket. Don’t color me surprised that some day Jackson will come clean about his blog or maybe even “revisit” some of his past reviews to give them a better spin and clearer opinion on them. All in all, I think the kids pretty good at reading the younger subject matters, I think his take on the more serious subject films is a little slanted or maybe he just not mature enough to enjoy them as a theater-goer. I think “Jackson” should still keep at it. 

Now, one last comment, of course I have to bring up that unfortunate tweet the 17 year kid made of actress Amy Schemer (pictured above). Sorry kid this tweet is going to haunt you for the rest of your life. It’s best to come clean on who really wrote this tweet. My strong hunch is that your dad wrote this little gem. It reads just like your Danish Girl review. Man I hope I am right! Hate to see a kid who was going somewhere just stall.