Chronicle
I figured Chronicle was going to be one of two kinds of movies. Option A = the movie that I have little to no interest in until a bunch of pretty reliable publications / friends start telling me how awesome it is and I get curious and give in and go see it and guess what? I think it sucks a whole lot more than Entertainment Weekly's A- review. (See also: last year's Insidious). Option B = the low budget sci fi film that is way more creative or inspired than it has to be for a movie released in the wasteland that is February movies and automatically becomes the best movie of the year so far. (See also: 2008's (??) Cloverfield). I'm happy to report that Chronicle falls into the latter category.
So, Chronicle, or X-Men: Magneto Goes to a Suburban Seattle High School, stars Dane DeHaan (who looks remarkably like a young Leonardo DiCaprio) as Andrew, a high schooler with a troubled home life (his mom is dying, his dad is an unemployed drunk who beats up one or both of them) who decides to start documenting his seemingly meaningless existence with an old school video camera. His dad yells at him all the time. The kids at school either call him a nerd or a creep. His only real friend is his considerably cooler cousin Matt (Alex Russell), and we're not even sure if he likes Andrew all that much. Then one night, Andrew and Matt go to a rave and along with the coolest guy in school, Steve (Friday Night Lights alum Michael B. Jordan), they discover this strange hole in the ground. Against Andrew's better judgment, they crawl down inside and strange things start to happen. Then the camera goes black and we cut to a day or so later when they suddenly have telekinetic powers.
That's when the real star of the film, the ridiculously good and realistic special effects, take over. The boys begin to do all kinds of awesome stuff with their new found powers - they move cars in parking lots, they play football in the clouds. It's all a lot of harmless fun, really. But the special effects are AMAZING. And it's so great because this movie was made for only $15 million or so. Think of a movie like Transformers, whose budget is probably ten or fifteen times that, and then think about fake some of the stuff in those movies looks. Well, nothing here looks fake. It all looks like magic and it's all a joy to watch. The audience is having fun. The characters are having fun. The director, Josh Trank, is probably having fun.
But, of course, the fun can't last forever. Andrew, the eternal loner / loser / tormented high schooler (I feel your pain, man. The kids I went to high school with should be lucky I didn't have telekinetic powers), can't live in his new found popularity forever. He was always the quickest learner and most talented of the three boys, and soon he starts heading to the dark side. The ending is at times intense and a little over the top. But, a crazy ending can't even ruin a movie as promising as Chronicle. The direction is great. The acting (especially from DeHaan) is great. And, of course, it's worth mentioning again how great those special effects are. All in all, Chronicle actually is the first really good movie of the year, so go see it.
Grade: B
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