The "found footage" style of filmmaking has arguably grown tired among movie goers. The complaints range from too much queasy-cam to low budget production value. Oh, I suppose it had its place at one time. "The Blair Witch Project," for instance used the ingenious tactic of marketing the film as actual recovered footage. Because the actors were unknown, it worked. Each subsequent attempt has had varying levels of success, but am I the only one who thinks employing this technique for "Chronicle" was unnecessary? Oh, it tries to be clever and sidestep the usual question of plausibility by having a central character state his reasoning for filming everything toward the beginning of the film. He has an abusive father and says he will be documenting everything from now on. Whether he means the abuse or literally everything is unclear. Cruel school mates also inquire about the camera. "I'm just filming things" he says. Well, okay.
"Chronicle" is the first feature film from 26 year-old director Josh Trank. It isn't hard to surmise his love of comic book movies because in its relatively brief 84 minutes, "Chronicle" has a surprisingly strong narrative and well-developed characters. The script by Max Landis is even up to par, serving up a well-balanced tone. These are good starting points for a film that, throughout its first act, has a lot of fun developing an original mythology for a "real world" superhero tale, although none of the characters ever refer to themselves as such. The first act also features some really nice pacing, with one sequence in particular that is creepy and unsettling.
"Chronicle" introduces us to Andrew (Dane DeHaan), a lanky kid who has problems at home. His mother is dying of cancer, his father is a former firefighter and now a professional drinker. It seems the abuse has been going on for awhile, so Andrew decides to capture some of his torment on camera. There is also abuse at school, with the traditional bullies of teenage cinema tripping, pushing, slapping, and name calling. The only thing I didn't see the bullies do was give Andrew a swirly or stuff him in a locker, but maybe the camera was off for that. Andrew's cousin Matt (Alex Russell) is a fairly popular kid with good looks and he hangs out with Steve (Michael B. Jordan), who is running for class president and is surprisingly charasmatic for the most popular kid in school.
There is a rave at an abandoned warehouse in the middle of the woods (aren't they always) and Matt figures Andrew needs to get out more and invites him along, but requests that he not bring that pesky camera. Of course Andrew does anyway, because without it, we wouldn't have a movie. Steve notices Andrew on the grass and introduces himself, and then promptly invites him to come check out a hole that he and Matt have found. The hole is the stuff of sci-fi legend; it is perfectly round, appears to be endless and emits an ominous hum that should disturb them. Before you can say "Vote for Steve," he is ninja jumping into the abyss, closely followed by Matt and Andrew, camera in tow. What they find is slightly obscurred but appears to be a large, crystaline object that has the remarkable ability to change colors and make Andrew's camera act goofy. Whatever else happens the audience doesn't get to find out, because the next bit of footage we see is what the boys call "the baseball test," where they throw a baseball at one another until Andrew is able to stop it inches from his face using only his mind. Woah.
What follows is a series of teenage adventures where the boys use their newly discovered powers to goof around. This is all a bit refreshing because how often do we recall Clark Kent lamenting his desire throughout his teenage years to use his powers just once to score a touchdown? Andrew, Matt and Steve discover that trying to do too much too soon causes them to have severe nosebleeds. Matt theorises that the powers are "like a muscle; if we stretch them too far, we'll strain them." Sounds reasonable to me. They start off small, levitating teddy bears through the toy aisle, yanking gum out of a hapless dope's mouth, etc. Of course this inspires laughs, because in a sadistic way, we understand that if given the same powers, we might do the same types of things. Before long, however, Andrew unwisely uses his powers in a supernatural form of road rage, with disastrous results. Upset by his thoughtless misuse, Steve and Matt rightly concede that there must be some rules when it comes to using their abilities. Not the way Andrew sees it.
Enough of the plot. There are many great discoveries in the second half of "Chronicle," with some truly astonishing action sequences. Josh Trank has concocted a surprisingly dark tale and some of the scenes of peril rival much of what we see in the end of the world blockbusters. This would all be truly effective but for the implausibility of Andrew's jarring shift of attitude. His development throughout the first half is pretty touching, we feel for him and hope that he will see better days. Just when he begins to and has some really nice things happening in his life, the plot requires him to be bad and he descends too quickly into the tired cliche that is every tormented high school boy we see on the news. He listens to nobody, monologues on video diaries about obscure theories of the animal kingdom, and screams at the very people he should not be screaming at. His solution in responding to his father's cruelty is far and away more cruel than anything he has ever endured. That's too bad, because he deserves better than to be downgraded to the token villain of the movie. It also lessens the impact of one of Matt's vital decisions late in the film.
I mentioned before the "found footage" method and I must say it is a gimmick that wears thin. How can you respect cinematography in a film that is meant to appear like it was shot on home video? Oh, Andrew uses his powers to float the camera around, and this provides steady shots of vital scenes, but what of the other footage? We see events from the perspective of security cameras, police dash cams, news reels, cell phones, and even Matt's girlfriend Casey (Ashley Hinshaw) seems to be inexplicably recording everything in her life. It all appears assembled into a conveniently cohesive narrative structure, but we are never told why. If you want to present these events as real-life, why not go full-tilt and provide them a context? Otherwise, we're left to guess why the footage wasn't just shot the traditional way. I can only imagine how "Chronicle" would look on an IMAX screen, projected in High Definition.
These qualms aside, "Chronicle" provides a great deal of entertainment in its brisk run time. Josh Trank certainly infuses a great sensibility for action, effects and a good story into a complex and compelling mythos. While the ending leaves room for it, I'm not sure there would be much point in a sequel. "Chronicle" is too smart to be resigned to becoming a franchise. Although perhaps someone could follow the new Hollywood trend and remake it in five years and scrap the "found footage" aspect. That might be interesting. As it is, "Chronicle" would be better served by simply providing the excuse that 'Hud' gives in "Cloverfield." A character in that movie asks him why he keeps recording. "People are going to want to see this" he says. Exactly.