I went into the movie theater expecting something as stupid as the telekinetic thriller “Push,” but as I was watching “Chronicle,” I got so pulled into the story; I cringed if someone got hit, I laughed when the floating teddy bear scared the little girl, and I got vertigo when the guys flew over Tibet.
After three teenagers find a strange power underground, they begin to develop telekinetic powers. It’s all fun and games and first: they train their powers mentally putting Legos together, playing pranks on unsuspecting shoppers at a store, and eventually will themselves to fly and playing sky football. But after one of the guys, Andrew (Dane DeHaan), accidentally put a man in the hospital, the leader of the trio, Matt (Alex Russell), sets up rules to prevent any kind of possible carnage.
Andrew, the typical smart and painfully shy guy has the kind of home life that would drive anyone insane: his father drinks constantly and is seriously violent towards his son, and his mother is extremely sick with some possibly terminal disease. This paired with Andrew’s bullied school life and social awkwardness leads to his anger escalating his powers into a dangerous weapon that threatens his family, friends, and the city of Seattle.
The entire movie is shot “Blair Witch Project”-style, meaning that every time there was anything on screen, one of the characters had to be holding a camera or it was seen through security footage. This basically means that the camera is always moving, and at times the poor editing just has to be taken for what it is.
Everyone involved in the movie, the director and the actors, was unbelievably talented. The writer/director, Josh Trank, is only 26 years old, and “Chronicle” is going to open so many doors for him. The idea to shoot the movie through rogue cameras was ingenious, and the dialogue he wrote was so real. The even younger actors brought a realistic air to the dialogue, so every time anyone spoke, it sounded like an actual teenager said it. What made it sound real were the imperfections in the speech: not rehearsed, subtle stutters, and interruptions.
Only one of the actors has had ample screen-time experience (Michael B. Jordan, “Friday Night Lights”), so everyone else was relatively new at this, you could not tell at all. Jordan’s character Steve was the typical people-person, well known and sociable, and the guy everyone knew would be famous one day; Dane DeHaan’s portrayal of the bullied Andrew was impeccable and you empathized with him all the way; Alex Russell’s performance as the deeper-than-I-look Matt was just as perfect, even though he had some of the cheesiest lines.
This movie really reminded me of Brian De Palma’s horror flick “Carrie” (about a shy and taunted girl with a telekinetic ability who takes revenge on her classmates after they humiliate her at the prom), and “Chronicle” put a good spin on it. And if you don’t care about the story, I still urge you to go see it. It’s just cool.
