With great power comes great responsibility. That was the lesson taught to Peter Parker and generations of comic book fans. Peter has a lot in common with Andrew Detmer, the lead character of Chronicle, as played by Dane DeHaan, an actor who closely resembles a young Leonardo DiCaprio. Both Andrew and Peter are lanky, socially awkward teens and suffered torment at the hands of high school bullies. Peter, at least, had a strong upbringing thanks to his Uncle Ben and Aunt May, who instilled in him a strong moral code. Sadly for Andrew, he did not have the same support system.
The shy and sensitive Andrew lives with a bed-ridden mother (Bo Petersen), who is slowly dying of cancer, and an alcoholic and abusive father (Michael Kelly), a former firefighter collecting disability. Andrew makes a new habit of carrying a camera everywhere he goes, recording his life at home and at school. His only friend is his cousin, Matt (Alex Russell). He's everything Andrew isn't. Confident and outgoing, Matt enjoys discussing Plato, Schopenhauer, and Jung. He invites a reluctant Andrew to a party where they meet up with Steve (Michael B. Jordan), the star quarterback who's running for class president. Together, they explore a pit in the woods where they discover a strange, glowing object.
Next thing you know, the three lads have been gifted with telekinetic powers. Do they fight for truth, justice, and the American way? No, they do what any teenagers would do if they were given extraordinary abilities. They pull pranks on each other and unsuspecting citizens at the shopping mall. They spook a little girl at the toy store with floating stuffed animals and knock one poor guy into a rack of groceries. There's even a Scott Baio in Zapped! moment when they lift the skirts of a group of pretty girls. Just when you think Chronicle is just Jackass with superpowers, things turn down a darker path as Andrew's mom gets sicker and his father gets angrier.
Chronicle marks the feature directorial debut of Josh Trank, who co-wrote the screenplay with Max Landis, son of John Landis, the director behind comedy classics like The Blues Brothers and Animal House. It's a fresh take on both the superhero film and found footage genre. The 1980 cult classic, Cannibal Holocaust, pioneered found footage, but it was The Blair Witch Project that really brought it to the forefront. The genre has exploded in recent years due to the immediacy of information in the YouTube era. It makes sense for Andrew to carry a camera everywhere he goes. The camera itself acts as a barrier between Andrew and the world around him, a point needlessly spelled out by one of the characters. At its best moments, the concept allows Trank to place the audience directly in Andrew's point of view as we witness the highs and lows of his life, from the heartbreaking cruelties at the hands of bullies to the invigorating freedom when the boys learn how to fly. Indeed, the flight sequences in Chronicle are some of the most captivating since Christopher Reeve first made you believe a man could fly. Even better, Trank isn't beholden to the conceit that the character must always be holding the camera at eye level no matter what ala Cloverfield. Thus, Chronicle isn't rife with queasy, shaky cam shots because the characters can simply float the camera at a convenient angle with their powers.
The question remains did Chronicle need to be done as a found footage movie? Not really. Trank mixes in black and white surveillance footage and news camera footage when he can to maintain the concept. Matt romances a pretty blonde (Ashley Hinshaw), who is a video blogger, allowing Trank to cut back and forth during their conversations. These scenes tend to draw too much attention to the genre's conventions and don't help the story. There are still places where it makes no sense for the camera to be recording. Andrew's dad berates his son for wasting money on an expensive camera, but still keeps it running? Although, you could argue Andrew switched it back on either consciously or unconsciously.
Luckily, the film is so well made and compelling that these minor quibbles do not diminish the overall experience. It's remarkable that Chronicle was made on a budget of only $12 million as the special effects are more convincing and the action more visceral than films made with tens times as much. Chronicle builds and builds towards a climactic confrontation at the top of the Space Needle before turning downtown Seattle into a war zone. The chaos and destruction harkens back to the drive-in sci-fi classics of yesteryear.
Chronicle turns out to be an origin story, but you'll walk out of the theater satisfied and craving more, instead of feeling ripped off at having only watched an extended first act. This is the debut of a filmmaker with great potential. Rumors instantly popped up that Trank would direct Fox's reboot of Fantastic Four, but they were quickly shot down. A shame since Trank can clearly bring a unique voice to the staid formula. There's a sly deconstruction of the superhero at work here evidenced by a scene where Andrew tortures a spider and plucks its legs off with a mere look.
Chronicle is the best non-comic book, comic book movie since Unbreakable.
Rating: *** (*****)
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