Review of Chronicle (2012) by Oxana — 23 Aug 2014

A film in a film - a movie told through camera. Not the first time, and it seems to have become a bit of a trend, but this one makes a decent job of it. Only near the end the movie seems to lose its grasp a little, finding it hard to follow the original idea (it seem a bit forced).

The characters feel real. They are young, they aren't perfect, inside or out, and especially Dane DeHaan as Andrew is disturbingly... disturbed. But you can understand him, and feel sorry for him, even when he snaps. You can relate to it, as you can relate to each and every troubled youth in this world.

"Chronicle" itself is a story of three boys who are not exactly connected, but whom a common incident pulls together, giving them a sense of unity. Yet even the most amazing, bizarre similarity cannot sew together something that didn't belong together previously, and the newly-formed friendship begins to crack, bit by bit.

The special effects were rather well made, and even via camera they looked real enough. Especially because of the view point, the events seemed chaotic and almost disturbingly real; if it could happen, it would be just like this, and it would be brutal.

There's no coming of age. There's no pastel happy ending. There's only what people make of each other, by their actions and by their choices - a cause, an effect, and a little bit of extraterrestrial spicing things up.