Jamesy Boy is the type of film you go into, knowing it will probably be somewhat enjoyable and far from the best film ever made. But what I was left with was just a horrid film with terrible performances and a laughable plot line that we've seen done a thousand times over and done way better in films like Midnight Express and American History X. Spencer Lofranco gives a very one dimensional, and paper thin performance as our titular character while everyone else around him drowns him out with better, more controlled performances. This is never a good sign for a film. The supporting actors make Lofranco look like a fish out of water as he tries to navigate the film and keep his head above float when acting with veteran actors such as James Woods and Ving Rhames. One big surprise here, however, is Taissa Farmiga. She was absolutely amazing in this film and I believe she will stand as the only real reason to ever sit through something as incompetent as this is, furthermore, she is the only reason I am not rating this a 1 star film. The story of the little prison boy going straight wears out its welcome after the first five minutes as it dabs into every cliché in the metaphoric book, from befriending the friendly rapist killer in Ving Rhames to going head to head with the "evil" warden in James Woods. I didn't know whether this film was a satire on prison movie clichés or the script was really just that bad. Even for the first time writer/director, Trevor White, this is pretty bad. This is a film that doesn't have any sense of reality, yet it tries to be things like "raw" and "gritty" instead it just turns out hokey and laughable. Overall, Jamesy Boy is one bad film from top to bottom and the only reason why this film is remotely watchable is because of Taissa Farmiga...and even she can't save this film from itself.
Review of Jamesy Boy
