Dir: Josh Trank
Starring: Dane Dehaan, Alex Russel, Michael B. Jordan
The superhero and handheld found footage genres collide in a surprisingly original new film.
Andrew (Dane Dehaan) is a teenager living in at home with a drunk abusive father and a dying mother. He is the typical teen outsider, bullied at school with few friends. He decides to start filming his life. While at a party with his only friend, his cousin Matt (Alex Russell), Andrew, Matt and their soon to be new friend Steve (Michael B. Jordan), the popular kid at school looking to be class president, stumble upon a mysterious hole which houses an unknown object which gives them super powers. They record the progress of their new growing powers but things take a turn for the worse as Andrew uses his powers against the people who bully him.
The superhero and found footage genres are nothing new and there are plenty of films of these genres coming out each year. Though it came with a slightly dodgy trailer, Chronicle has gained good reviews. Its strength lies in putting the superhero powers in a realistic context. The characters are easily relatable and identifiable as real teenagers, the casting of unknown actors helping to solidify this. The film is not just a straight forward superhero film; it is also a teen drama. Andrew’s home life is set up straight away as we see a confrontation with his dad at the beginning of the film. It is Andrew’s struggles and problems in life which hold up the film and which ultimately lead to his change.
All three of the main characters are
well rounded and ably played by the cast so we actually care about them. We get
to see the three characters become good friends as they play around with their
powers. These sequences are put side by side with Andrews problems at home and
we see the problems caused by the powers which start to strain their
relationship. Realistic problems of trust and jealousy are set effectively to a
background of superpowers. We all know the feeling of friends being better than
us at things or losing them to girlfriends or other new things. These are real
human situations but they also just happen to have super powers.
The film gets to play
around with the handheld format. Andrew uses his powers to manipulate the
camera, floating it around him so the film is able to gives us more cinematic
and normal filmic shots than can usually be found in a hand held film. It also
allows us to stay firmly with the characters as one of them is always going to
be manipulating the camera. The film isn’t concerned with what it was that
changed them, and it won’t bother you either, it’s just the characters that
matter and we get to be right there in the fun when they discover each facet to
their powers, a sequence in which they learn to fly is exhilarating and fun and
leads to a dramatic conclusion.Chronicle comes unstuck slightly when it gets to its big ending set piece where its lower budget starts to cause strain. Attempts are made to keep the hand held format to the camera but credibility of this is lost as they contrive different ways to keep the conceit up. The final battle is entertaining but not as good as earlier parts, such as when Andrew takes on a group of older men in the street, and it is a shame we didn’t get to see more of this sort of action before the big ending. However, this is only a small criticism of a good film and shouldn’t discourage you from watching it.
Not perfect but definitely doing something interesting and different with the found footage and superhero genres, Chronicle is a pleasurable surprise which deserves to get the audience of worse films such as Paranormal Activity. With fun action sequences, proper drama and likable characters you can actually care about it is a breath of fresh air.
4 out of 5 Buttons
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