Typically this part of the year brings little pleasure by way of cinema. It is widely known that the first couple of months of the year is but a dumping ground for films that studios thought would not be successful amongst the more high profile offerings of the yesteryear. However, every now and again you will sit through something that will surprise you and entertain you in a refreshingly striking way that somehow subverted your expectations entirely. I live for movie experiences like this....in fact...this is why i proudly call myself a cinemaphile....because every now and again....you'll see something and regard it as a real gem.
When I first saw the ads for "Chronicle" (a chronically mismarketed and missold film) i had an "eh wan" sorta reaction. The special effects looked kinda cool...but I thought, surely they will mess this up somehow with its Heroes meets Cloverfield "found footage" premise. When my boys saw the movie and panned it, then I thought for sure that this movie would get quickly shuffled down to my "wait until netflix" list. But something about it kept at me.....and as I unknowingly found my way into the Arclight, taking my seat for what I thought would surely be a rote experience at the movies......I was surprised when the lights came up and I sat firmly planted in my seat.....letting the experience of the closing title sequence wash over me with this awesome M83 song playing in the background (see above).
To back it up a bit, I now judge the merits of a movie on how quickly I want to leave the movie theater. If the movie end, the house lights come up, and I bolt for the door....then I consider the experience utterly forgettable....but if I have a strong desire to stay in my seat and actually read about all the players involved in the production, then I know that what i have seen is certified good. I struggled with calling "Chronicle" necessarily "good" but when I thought about it....something is in fact more appealing about it....that crosses it into sorta "brilliant".
at 84 minutes, it would be pretty easy for "Chronicle" to fly off the rails without any fault of its own. But it manages to tell a very simple and effective story and wrap it all in a decidedly tired and overused medium while at the same time producing something fresh and exciting. There is really nothing terribly original about "Chronicle", but I loved how it took sorta old conventions and made them new. The script is nothing to write home about, but a funny thing happened sorta 15 minutes into the movie, I became far less concerned about what the characters were saying and rather, enjoy the subtleties of the performances. The actors here are soo effective at what they are doing and come alive so much on screen that they totally and completely sell the friendship until the very end of the film. Its is this exemplified friendship that is the heart of the film.
in short, "Chronicle" takes us through a slice of life through the eyes of Andrew Detmer (Dane DeHann) a socially awkward high school kid whose homelife is hell and social life even more disparaging. His only friend seems to be his much cooler cousin Matt Garetty (Alex Russell) who (as suggested) only seems to be around because he's family and to provide the much needed lift to school. Andrew and Matt are joined one day by Steven Montgomery (an excellent Michael B. Jordan) the most popular kid at school whose mannerisms and personality seemed to remind me a lot of myself (on a side note, how many films have you seen where the most popular kid in school is black and he or she is not treated like "the token" in the story). The three discover an underground cave one evening, get adventurous, and then wake up the next day with what can best be described as superpowers. As their superpowers grow, so do the bonds of their friendship....three unlikely people who are connected through incredible circumstance.
as "Chronicle" unfolds, we learn that Andrew family life is growing increasingly more taxing and damaging....and his powers act as a way for him to enable himself and cope with the misery at home. I want give too much more away other than to say that "Chronicle" gradually slides into darker waters, but the narrative is handled so effectively, by the time you get there you completely understand how you got there. You understand where the anger is coming from and why its being unleashed in such a way.
I still really can't put my finger on it, but something really grabbed me about the story being told here. And it def helps that the special effects lend themselves completely to the storytelling and are not delivered in "look at me" sorta spectacle. By the time you get to the end.......the story felt like it unfolded in a completely natural way and I was surprised by how it all ends on such an emotional, sentimental, striking note. Needless to say, the movie stayed with me and still has....a chronicle for a thouroghly enjoyable movie going experience.
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