Chronicle
I understand why people don’t like the glut of movies coming out with a main character also playing documentary filmmaker. First, documentary films are well shot and do not employ the “shaky cam” method of these films. Second, the films themselves are dependent on not making people vomit as the move with the action. I also find that they involve me in the movie more. I like to be a little nervous and unable to see what is clearly behind me until it flashes in a mirror. It adds atmosphere to a now mostly bland arena of well shot movies. It offers a different style and I dig it. Blair Witch was one of my first experiences with this style of movie and it worked on many levels that made me supply the chills and scares as they went down the rabbit hole and ended up with Mikey standing in the corner. Why was Mikey standing in the corner?! The Descent used the effect very well when you turned on the night vision and saw the cave dwelling creatures lurking where the others didn’t see. Paranormal Activity, The Fourth Kind, Cloverfield, District 9, Paranormal Activity 2 and 3, Diary of the Dead (an excellent George Romero flick), The Virginity Hit and the upcoming Project X have used the camera as a character in the movie. It makes me think of riding the mortally wounded P.I. falling down the stairs in Psycho. Hitchcock made you feel uncomfortable as a movie viewer and while I won’t be blasphemous enough to say Paranormal Activity is Hitchcockian, it certainly delivers the uncomfortable feeling of almost being a voyeur in the character’s lives. One almost feels guilty for watching these people sleep or be dragged down a hallway.
Chronicle is the latest movie to employ this effect and crafts a great movie around it. The camera is used far more in this movie as the super powers the teens develop allows them to float the camera around the action in a smooth artful shots. It begins on a door, looking as someone (we later learn it is the cameraman’s father) demanding it be unlocked. Only when the frightened loner Andrew yells that he is filming everything from now on does his father back down and leave. Andrew’s mother is sick and dying slowly. The family, Mom bedridden and Father a firefighter on disability, is not even able to pay for the medicine to help her die peacefully. Andrew’s cousin, Matt, seems to be the only one to even notice Andrew exists. His attempts to make Andrew less socially awkward by bringing him to a rave (cause all shy people like raves) lead them to find, with popular jock Steve (Friday Night Light’s Michael B. Jordan) a hole in the ground making loud screeching noises. As with any movie, the kids don’t go find the authorities, they investigate it themselves. Something happens in that hole and while it seems alien in nature, we never really find out why these things happen. Regardless, the heroes now have superhuman abilities, moving objects (from a girl’s skirt to a car) with their minds, can take forks to the hand without pain and can fly.
Although Andrew now has two friends with which he can do most anything, his home life is rapidly deteriorating. His father is suspicious of his every move, his mother seems to be getting worse and that makes his father drink even more (apparently as in most homes with alcoholics, they can afford alcohol even if Mom can’t get her medicine). On the flip side, his school life is opening up. He wows at a school talent show, gets the girl (kind of) and has plans to fly to Tibet with his new best friends. Andrew is the most powerful of the three and also the most morally ambiguous. He is a classic version of a loner teen who brings a gun to school in act 3. I liked his portrayal mostly because the movie doesn’t demonize him or make him a sympathetic killer. He is just a kid who has been pushed to the edge by all of those around him. The final half hour is a special effects minefield in which they switch from street cams to hand held devices to tell the story. Chronicle is not a mind blowing movie but it is entertaining. It has a certain charm that makes you root for the characters. They have this greatness thrust upon them and then have to learn how to be responsible with it. It is like watching Superman learning how to be super and failing.
Most of these actors are unknowns (Michael B. Jordan the most well known) and they do a good enough job. None of them took me out of the movie and most enhanced it. Andrew was played with quiet intensity by Dane DeHaan and they make a movie that is interesting to watch throughout. I was sitting forward in my chair at the end, wondering how they were going to end it. Overall the movie takes a style of movie that is being overused and refreshes it. I like that. It makes me feel hopeful that we can make it through a summer with good well written films using special effects rather than with making a special effect in the guise of a movie. Chronicle is a not an Oscar winner but it certainly raises the game a bit in February. It is probably the best thing out there not nominated for Best Picture. It could be better than some of those too.
Mr. Unhappy sez: The use of a tired routine is refreshed and made with more style/artistry. It would be like using Madonna in the Superbowl halftime except entertaining.
No comments:
Post a Comment