When it comes to story, Chronicle is about as simple as they come. If you’ve seen the trailer you’re already aware three high schoolers stumble upon a hole in the ground and after being exposed to whatever is down there they begin to enjoy a growing form of telekinesis that only gets stronger the more they use it. As the film progresses one of the boys turns to the dark side and things go wonky from there. The end.
Inside of that bit of story, screenwriter Max Landis hammers home the fact Andrew (Dane DeHaan) — he’s the one that turns into a bad guy — has had a pretty crappy upbringing. His mom is dying of cancer, his dad was a firefighter who was injured on the job and now stays home collecting checks and caring for his wife (when he’s not drunk and beating on Andrew) and Andrew is an outcast at school and picked on with regularity. His only friend is his cousin (Alex Russell) and even that seems like it’s more forced than real.
Things only change when Andrew buys a camera to begin documenting his day-to-day life. In the beginning, though, the camera isn’t winning him any popularity contests with the bullying at school continuing and the cheerleaders calling him “creepy”. It’s only at a party when his cousin and the senior class big shot, Steve (Michael B. Jordan), find the hole I mentioned earlier and need the light on his camera to go down in that the camera seems to actually serve a purpose. From there, Andrew feels the need to “document” their powers and the camera remains a part of the story from that point forward.
I will, however, give Josh Trank some credit for how he dealt with the “found footage” aspect of this film. Trank tells the story with the understanding that any camera catching the action can be used, not only the one being operated by protagonist. This includes surveillance cameras, Andrew’s camera, video phones from bystanders and such. Of course, it is still ridiculous how often Andrew is actually filming and where he takes the camera, such as a late night pouting session 30,000 feet in the air. Combine that with an equally obsessive camera operator played by Ashley Hinshaw, who is constantly filming even if it’s just to open the front door, and you’re well beyond ridiculous. But, for what it’s worth I liked the presentation.
In fact, I liked the movie, it’s just that it is so simple there isn’t much to talk about or get excited over beyond the few minutes you’re in the theater watching. The plot is easy enough to relate to as we’ve all wanted to fight back at some point. And, Andrew, with his new powers and the relentless amount of bottled rage, he’s finally able to muster up the courage to stand up for himself, but it comes at the cost of his rage taking over.
Which brings me to one major point, if there’s any complaint in the actual story, it’s the exhaustive the film goes to just to show how bad Andrew’s life is. It gets so heavy-handed in some moments it runs the risk of turning our feelings for Andrew from pity to animosity, but I guess they figured they needed to fill the time with something as Chronicle only runs 83 minutes long.
The rest of the film, however, leaves little to complain about. The performances from the three leads are solid (Michael B. Jordan was the stand out for me with charisma to spare) and the effects for a low budget feature are quite impressive. Trank was working on a budget somewhere around $13 million and still managed to effectively destroy most of downtown Seattle and send three high schoolers flying through the air along with cars, helicopters, buses and whatever else got in the way. At some moments the wire work is a bit clumsy, but for the price you can’t really beat it.
Chronicle is a small story with a heavy dose of action and I enjoyed it for that. It essentially plays like an episode of “Heroes” without all the unnecessary mumbo-jumbo to get in the way. We’re not talking high concept here as we’re only talking about a “what if?” scenario if you were to suddenly realize you could crush a car with your mind, but that’s enough for an 83-minute movie to keep me entertained.
