Chronicle Review
By David Kempler
Cranky Chronicle
What happens when the nerdy, angry, self-loathing high school geek gets super powers? Obviously, it could go horribly wrong or horribly right. If you opted for him becoming a lovely and benevolent human being, I'm afraid you are mistaken.
Andrew (Dane Dehaan) carries around a camera in his house, in the car, in the hallways at school, and anywhere else his angry legs can carry him. At home, he is going through a particularly unpleasant existence. His mother is slowly dying, and his unemployed father spends his time drinking to excess. When he is not drinking, he is either verbally or physically beating up his kid. At school, he is treated similarly by his classmates. Andrew is not a happy fellow.
Matt (Alex Russell), his cousin, is the philosophical type, constantly spouting high school deepness. Whether we are supposed to hold him in high regard isn't very clear, but certainly by comparison he is a superstar. The two of them team up with Steve (Michael B. Jordan), who is the main man in school. Everyone looks up to Steve, who has discovered something odd in a meadow and takes the other two to see what he has found.
It's a hole and the three of them climb deep down into the dirt to see what is going on. Inside is some sort of foreign object that might be alive. Whatever it is, it delivers powers unto the three young gentlemen. At first they struggle to harness their powers and it is fun to watch them wrestle with how best to deal with it. Andrew is coming out of his shell and at least for a short while becomes Mr. Popularity. They are having a great time, much in the way we might all daydream what we might do if granted super-human powers. This part of "Chronicle" is fun.
As they grow into their newfound powers, Andrew, for no discernible reason, becomes a total ass. I suppose we are supposed to accept this because at his core he is a deeply disturbed young man. Okay. Matt and Steve are dealing with it responsibly and this is setting up the inevitable split that puts Andrew on one side and Matt and Steve on the other. From that point forward, "Chronicle" devolves into a silly action, anti-super hero show. However, to the credit of director Josh Trank, it never becomes the least bit boring. While it has the obvious shortcomings that you might expect, there is enough here to make it worth viewing, even if it is not quite worth chronicling.
