Heroic Chronicle Close to Super
Andrew Detmer (Dane DeHaan), his cousin Matt Garrety (Alex Russell) and their popular High School classmate – he’s a shoe-in for class president – Steve Montgomery (Michael B. Jordan) probably shouldn’t be friends. They don’t have anything in common (other than Andrew and Matt being related, of course), they run in different circles and their life aspirations are anything but similar. But friendship they do indeed have, a strange alien secret bonding them together, the odd trio forming a bond few would understand and even less would allow themselves to believe.
Dane DeHaan in Chronicle © 20th Century Fox
What brought them together? What has allowed them to achieve this intimate bond? During a party just outside of Seattle deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest they came across a mysterious object under the ground, glowing in wavering fluorescents while giving out pulsating hums that seemed to resonate through each teen’s body going right to the core of their very cells. Whatever it was, it’s given them power, abilities no other mortal on the planet possesses, and as their collective control of their new skills increase so do the brotherly bonds of friendship transforming them into something of a distaff dysfunctional family.
Things go wrong, of course, as they always do, as uninhibited power corrupts some while it also turns others into self-sacrificing superheroes. It’s X-Men for the Facebook generation, a comic book origin story as seen through Cloverfield or Trollhunter eyes, and for the makers of Chronicle it’s safe to say they’ve given their familiar story of right, wrong and areas in-between a spin that’s a lot less ordinary or familiar than we’ve come to expect.
Director Josh Trank, who also came up with the story with screenwriter Max Landis (son of American Werewolf in London director John), has done a pretty great job of shaking up both the ‘found footage’ and superhero genres with his debut feature-length effort. The movie is surprisingly character based, using stock figures from a John Hughes High School comedy only to give them all more depth and nuance then you’d typically expect for a tale of this sort. Andrew, Matt and Steve are extremely interesting guys, and watching them evolve is part of what makes Chronicle a heck of a lot more fun than it arguably has a right to be.
At the same time, it should be noted this isn’t all a bed of roses. Trank and Landis go to some pretty dark territory, giving Andrew a backstory involving a cancer-afflicted mother (Bo Petersen) and an abusive father (Michael Kelly) that’s far more uncomforting than I’d expected going in. He is the one, the loser, the invisible kid, the Senior who can only standout by suddenly bringing a camera to school in order to film the mendacity of his everyday humdrum life, who ends up seeing the sudden influx of power go to his head. His evolution from rock star to super villain, from banal nobody to outright sociopath, is the one the majority of the movie revolves, and as such it gives things an aura of tragedy that’s fairly unsettling.
Be that as it may, the bottom line is that the basics of Chronicle involve three teenagers getting superpowers and going all cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs when they get the opportunity to use them. Scenes of the kids tossing baseballs at one another’s heads, sitting on the edge of Seattle skyscrapers sharing a burger and tossing a football 20,000-feet up in the air are to glorious to imagine, the energetic enthusiasm circulating through them all instantly catching. Best of all is Steve’s insistence Andrew take part in the school’s talent show, the former imbuing the latter with cocksure confidence so he can garner a self-worth and acquire a confidence he’s heretofore never known.
The climactic bout isn’t as exciting as I hoped it would be, Andrew and Matt ripping apart Seattle as if they were re-enacting the Metropolis smackdown found at the tail end of Superman II. The setup for a sequel is also jarring, and even though I feel like it’s there more because it fits the genre than because Trank and Landis actually want to make one (I’m assuming they probably don’t; not that I have any way of knowing for sure) its presence still annoyed.
Yet if you’re in the right frame of mind it goes without saying that Chronicle more than achieves its meager goals, keeping me entertained start to finish with nary a hiccup. Could it have been better? Might Trank and Landis have aimed a little higher? Sure, I’m pretty positive they could have, but considering the meager budget mixed with the pair’s lofty intentions I think the duo did a pretty super job, their low budget cinematic heroics hopefully foreshadowing greater things to come.
Film Rating: êê1/2 (out of 4)
Additional Links
