By Kate Drexel –
Zoom in on three ordinary teenage boys living the high life. Cut to the scene where they are flying around like they are superheroes. Jump to one of the boys throwing a ball at their friend’s face, and then start shouting in excitement. The friend was just simply staring at the ball when he makes it stop in midair…with his mind.
Chronicle was directed by Josh Trank and stars Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan, and Michael Kelly. The film was released Feb. 3, 2012, and Rotten Tomatoes rates this movie 7.2/10. Chronicle is about three boys (DeHaan, Russell, and Jordan) who use their newfound abilities for personal gain, mischief and one of them uses it for a darker purpose.
Dane DeHaan plays one of the main characters, Andrew, an average kid who documents every (somewhat miserable) moment in his life, including his abusive drunk of a father (Michael Kelly), a mother who is dying of cancer (Bo Petersen), and he is constantly being bullied in school. Andrew has one friend, his cousin, Matt, played by Alex Russell, who is fairly popular and lives the good life. While the boys are at a school party, they meet Steve, the rising school president, played by Michael B. Jordan.
The three find a hole in the ground, which they crawl in and find an extraterrestrial object. Once they touched it, the object begins to give off a high frequency hum that causes the boys’ noses to bleed heavily. Suddenly, the whole theater falls into the darkness. Jumping to several weeks later, Andrew, Matt, and Steve “exercise” their telekinetic abilities, Matt calling this power “a muscle.”
While it is all fun and games, the boys encounter a serious issue when an impatient “red-neck” driver continuously honks at the boys’ car and Andrew pushes the red-neck’s car over the barrier, severely injuring him. Matt and Steve ask Andrew if it was an accident. Andrew’s response: a dark blank stare.
The idea that I found very interesting was the fact that the whole movie was documented with a hand-held regular video camera. It was almost like the Paranormal Activity trilogy, but with superpowers. One of the scenes that I found really amusing and so well done was when the boys were first learning how to fly.
Steve and Andrew got the hang of it the first time, however, whenever Matt kicked himself off the ground, he wound up on the ground again. Once they were soaring through the clouds and zooming around, it was as if the whole movie theater was flying with them. The boys played football until Steve was knocked out of the sky by a jet plane.
Watching the falling scene, I couldn’t help but white-knuckle the arm rests. I will admit that while they were flying, it was fairly nauseating because the hand-held camera was copying all of their maneuvers. Out of all the scenes, this was definitely the most exhilarating one yet.
I highly recommend it for those who are fans of the Paranormal Activity trilogy. Though I did hear a baby in the theater, I do not think a child younger than eight-years-old would enjoy it considering there are some very graphic and intense scenes in it. Those who enjoy films about superpowers in general would enjoy this. Chronicle was happy, funny, sad, scary, and very thrilling.
I loved the film because it made me laugh out loud so hard, something I have not done while watching a movie in the theaters. I laughed until my sides were in pain. Another reason why I loved the film—Because it was unique and absolutely well done. It is rare that you find movies that are as good as this one.
