Chronicle
2012 · Directed by Josh Trank
Original language: English
- science fiction
- drama
- thriller
The story
Three high school students make an incredible discovery, leading to their developing uncanny powers beyond their understanding. As they learn to control their abilities and use them to their advantage, their lives start to spin out of control, and their darker sides begin to take over.
What it’s like
Shaky handheld footage from teenage camcorders, phone cameras and a school surveillance feed gives this one its restless, raw texture: grainy low-light bedrooms, flat overcast Seattle streets, suburban parking lots at dusk, and wide, eerily quiet aerial shots once the hero's powers take hold. The palette runs grey, muddy green and cold blue, broken by the warm, unpolished glow of home video. Sound does a lot of the work, with a sparse, tense score that swells during flight and stunts, and long stretches where only breath, wind and the hum of a camera carry the scene. The vibe is restless loneliness tipping into unease, the feeling of watching something bright go sour. Pacing starts slow and intimate, then accelerates into kinetic, disorienting set pieces. Emotionally it follows three outcast boys whose friendship curdles as power isolates them, a coming-of-age story with a darkening edge. Violence is real and escalating, with a few brutal, abrupt moments and some injury and destruction, though there is no gore for its own sake and no sexual content. Best for viewers who want a grounded superhero story with found-footage immediacy, not a cosy one.
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