Director: Josh Trank
Writers: Max Landis and Josh Trank
2012
Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan
Chronicle, an action/ sci-fi flick, tells the story of three high school seniors: weird loner Andrew, his intelligent cousin Matt, and their new golden-boy, jock buddy Steve, as they deal and experiment with their new found telekinetic powers. Through outcast Andrew’s video camera, we’re taken into his world: a sad, lonely place where the only person who talks to him is Matt. With an alcoholic father and terminally ill mother to boot, filming every second of every day makes sense as an escape. The story really begins when Matt drags Andrew, handy-dandy camera in tow, to a rager at an abandoned warehouse. There, the two link up with student body president-hopeful Steve, and the three inspect a curious hole in the ground and a mysterious blue light. The best friends approach their new powers from a playful standpoint, holed-up in Matt’s room, giggling like ten-year-olds with a new toy. The discovery process is an interesting and engaging one, and we as the audience are as eager to see how far their powers can take them as they are. The guys prank and play as they grow increasingly stronger, but escalating problems at home and a post-talent show party embarrassment anger Andrew, the most powerful of the trio, and trouble begins to brew.
Constantly comparing himself to a predator, Andrew sinks into a depression and lashes out, violently, at everyone and everything; literally tearing up the town and its people. Dane DeHaan conveys Andrew’s twisted mindset with a scowling, dead-eyed look that highlights and makes creepy the actor’s ice blue eyes. The shaky hand-cam made popular by The Blair Witch Project, and annoyingly perpetuated by Quarantine and Cloverfield, usually serve as a cheap gimmick that generates a forced intensity, but is made cool and clever in Chronicle. The camera is still when it needs to be and shakes when necessary, and the transitions from Andrew’s camera, to bystander’s camera phones, to security footage from police cars help maintain believability in an unbelievable situation. Matt tries, futilely, to talk down his dangerous cousin, and the endgame between the two is unexpected.
The best part about Chronicle isn’t the incredible display of awesome that is telekinesis (though that is cool), or the sweet camaraderie these high school kids engage in, but the kind of story the movie tells. It would be easy for the film to go into any number of conspiracy theories about where the power came from, who put it there, and why it was given to them, but Chronicle addresses none of these. Instead, what we’re given is the story of three guys who stumbled onto something amazing, and what happens when they take advantage of it. That character focus makes everything that happens seem that much more severe, because we as an audience know about and care for these people. Calm enough for those who like a little plot with their action, and explosive enough for those who prefer constant motion, Chronicle is oddly and pleasantly gripping, and certain to delight sci-fi fans eager to see something a little different.