As some of you know, I helped produce a recently completed “found footage” movie - hopefully coming soon to a theatre near you. In 1999, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT started the found footage movement, but it was slow to catch on. Hollywood and film festivals are/were heavily biased toward film, and shunned these upstart digital movie makers. The cold shoulder is heating up rapidly with the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY trilogy grossing over $300,000,000. Even opening against the Super Bowl, CHRONICLE will probably earn back its meager $12,000,000 budget.
While watching CHRONICLE I kept asking myself “why is this a found footage movie?” The most commonly asked question about this genre is “why does the person keep filming in the face of some mortal danger?” In CHRONICLE, I was asking myself how can this kid with no job, a disabled but abusive father and a dying mother even afford a camera? After his camera is destroyed, a friend just buys him a new one. If the camera is gone, how do we have the footage? How did we find the footage from the camera left on a mountain in the Himalayas? The use of found footage becomes even more absurd when the girlfriend character is also documenting her life on camera. CHRONICLE, with its levitating camera (crane shot) and its dual camera setup, should have been a straight up narrative movie.
That said, I found CHRONICLE to be surprisingly entertaining. Three high school boys Andrew (Dane DeHaan) the outcast, Steve (Michael B. Jordan) Mr. Popular, and Matt (Alex Russell) anti-popularity, come into contact with an object that gives them super powers (and nose bleeds). The powers are weak at first, but grow stronger with repeated use. The power also links the three together so that each knows if the other is in trouble. It’s all fun and games until outcast Andrew decides he just can’t take the abuse anymore. Pain, death and destruction ensue. Your classic battle of good versus evil. If you are a fan of super hero action, I’d recommend CHRONICLE with a three out of five airplane rating.
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