The film starts with Andrew (Dane DeHaan) setting up a video camera in his room while his drunk father is pounding on his bedroom door. He tells his father that he's filming this, that he's going to be filming everything from here on out. I thought he meant just the stuff at home, so he'd have a record of his abuse, something that might in fact keep his father from getting violent in the future (or at least make him hesitate), which is an idea that immediately pulls me into the film. But no, he means he's going to film everything. And so that's the footage we see. The film is very careful to stick with this idea (until the end, when it suddenly abandons the idea in order to get certain shots).
It turns out that Andrew is often bullied, and the camera captures this. However, it's not handled that well. In fact, most of the bullying seems to be a result of the fact that he is filming. For example, one guy at a party gets angry because he thinks that Andrew is filming his girlfriend and threatens to beat him up because of it. But he does capture his father's violence, when his father smacks him, knocking him out of his chair. (At this point, Andrew is watching the day's footage, but is also filming himself watching the day's footage.) But why is Andrew filming everything? What does he hope to achieve through this?
At the party, Steve Montgomery (a popular student who is running for class president) and Matt (Andrew's cousin and only friend) ask Andrew to come with them to film something. They lead him into the woods, where they find a strange hole in the ground. It's unclear just why Steve had left the party to discover this hole in the first place, but no matter. Steve jumps into the hole, and that is actually a really good shot. And soon Matt and Andrew follow. What they find in there is a strange glowing thing that is never quite explained. Is it an alien life form, or alien technology? It messes with them and with the camera.
The film then cuts to a day scene, where the three boys are throwing a baseball at each other, and manipulating it through telekinesis. So clearly some time has passed. They know that the thing in the cave has had some effect on them. They return to the cave during the day, but find that the hole is filled in. And cops tell them to leave, that the ground is unstable. So they do, and they never bother to go back there again. Also there is dialogue that indicates that Andrew's old camera is down in the hole, that they've bought a new one. This is a big problem, because we've seen the party footage as well as the footage down in the cave. So how do we see it? Did the government intentionally fill in the hole, after finding the video camera? And if so, how did the person who supposedly put the film together get a hold of that footage? And really, if the person did get a hold of that footage, why didn't he or she investigate it further himself or herself later, and include the findings in the film? There are a lot of questions like this that make the film a rather frustrating experience.
There is also some irritatingly bad dialogue, like the scene in which Steve and Andrew are in a car (going where?), and Steve, out of the blue, asks about Andrew's father. This gives Andrew the chance to mention that he's a fire fighter but was injured on the job. A very clunky way of providing the audience with information. (The father is one of the one-note characters, by the way, and not very convincing). There is some unbelievable stuff too, like when Andrew asks Matt if he's thought about doing more with this power that they now have. Matt responds, "Not really." This is while they're using their power to skip rocks across a lake. Really? He hasn't thought about doing more with it? Teenagers (as well as those of us who are older) dream of having super powers, but these three have only thought as far as skipping stones and building Lego replicas of the Space Needle with their telekinesis?
Steve then reads a definition of "telekinesis" to the others, as if none of the three had looked into what this might be before then. It's been like a month at this point. But you get the feeling he's really defining it for any idiots in the audience who might be unfamiliar with the concept. And that's irritating. Don't talk down to me.
Their powers grow stronger, and they gain more control over them. After an angry Andrew causes a car to run off the road, they decide there must be some rules. Don't use the power on living things; don't use it when angry; and don't use it in public. Will those rules be broken? You can count on it.
The problem of the limited perspective is solved by the addition of an otherwise-pointless character named Casey. She is a fellow student who is also a video blogger, and so carries a camera everywhere she goes, just like Andrew. So this adds a second viewpoint to the film, and allows the director to get some footage when Andrew isn't present. But it's so obvious that this is Casey's only reason for existence that it makes her essentially a non-entity.
The three boys begin to have some sort of mental connection. They share nosebleeds, which indicates that their powers might be having an adverse effect on their health. And Steve tells Andrew that he was able to find him because he could hear Andrew's voice in his head. This is a really interesting development, that then is immediately dropped. And although teenagers in general tend to think of themselves as invincible at times, wouldn't these three be concerned about their health? Wouldn't they be at least a bit worried about how this power is affecting their bodies? Wouldn't they bring an expert in?
Also, when their powers increase, and they're able to move cars and such, wouldn't they go back and remove the dirt covering the hole? Why does this never occur to them?
Of course, Andrew goes a bit mad from the power, and from years of being bullied, and begins to break all three of their rules. This leads to the inevitable confrontation between Matt and Andrew, and like in comic books films, the final battle is totally uninteresting. And it breaks the conceit of the found footage. There are closeup shots of Matt and a shot of a statue that no character filmed.
And ultimately there is the question of who found this footage and put it together. What was that person's intention in assembling it the way he or she did? This is one more thing that is left unaddressed.
It's a frustrating film because there is some really good stuff. The cast does a remarkably good job with the material they're given. And the idea of normal folks suddenly gaining powers that they don't understand is definitely a good one. It seems the script needed a few more drafts.
Chronicle was written by Max Landis and directed by Josh Trank. It stars Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan, Michael Kelly and Ashley Hinshaw. It was released on DVD on May 15, 2012.
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