My Review of Chronicle

Yes, I'm actually going to do a real movie review.  If you haven't heard of it, Chronicle is a movie about 3 high school friends that make a discovery that gives them extraordinary abilities.  It's not a superhero movie by any means.  It's shot almost entirely in the perspective of circumstantial cameras... kinda in the same way as Cloverfield, and the climax of the movie is truly incredible.

I still can't get used to these movies that are shot in this camera style; it's just too jumpy for me and it would have given me a headache if I had seen it in theatres.  I did get used to it after a while, but it still distracted me a bit from what was going on on screen.  That being said, the events unfolding on screen were very captivating and I felt drawn into the story, maybe in part because I felt like an outsider in high school as well.  The performances were quite good as well, especially the lead protagonist Andrew, played by relative newcomer Dane DeHaan.  Throughout the movie you just know he's going to just explode and you're just waiting for that moment. The overall theme of Chronicle is not “With great power comes great responsibility”, as you may think.  The theme is loneliness.  Andrew’s only high school friend before the “discovery” was his cousin Matt, and that was really the only reason they were friends, because they were family.  Andrew’s father was a retired firefighter who is an alcoholic that beats him.  His mother is dying of cancer.  Andrew does become friends with the class president Steve who shares in the discovery, and you see them become fast friends.  The polar opposites of their personalities and popularity work well together and you finally get a glimpse of Andrew getting what he has always wanted: to fit in.  Unfortunately that is short-lived because of an embarrassing incident followed by a heartbreaking accident.  After that, Andrew spirals deeper and deeper into a very dark place.  Instead of using these new abilities to create a better life for himself, they just drive him further from humanity and closer to supreme loneliness.  This is not a happy movie, and don’t expect any superman heroics.  This is the most realistic portrayal I have ever seen on screen of what would happen if 3 humans (teenagers at that) became superhumans .  It was directed and co-written by Josh Trank, who is actually in talks to direct the movie adaptation of Shadow of Colossus, for all you gamers out there.  My grade: B+.