Power Makes the Predator in Chronicle

“Why not?” seems to be the question Chronicle director and co-writer, Josh Trank, asked when giving life to this film.  The found-footage sci-fi thriller starts out slow and dark, literally chronicling every step of Andrew Detmer’s (Dane DeHaan) life and quickly becomes a story about the dangers that can come about when power falls into the wrong hands. 

A lonely, struggling, bullied teen in a small town with a bad home-life certainly sounds like a character that many audiences have experienced, yet this plot takes an unexpected turn with the addition of supernatural forces.  Every second of this film is captured in a way that few other movies have used so thoroughly, as it appears to be entirely shot through the lenses of handheld cameras.  With Andrew’s recent decision to bring his camera with him everywhere and video record his life, the film style allows for viewers to really experience the whole film as though they are seeing it through his eyes. 

While at a party to which his cousin Matt (Alex Russell) brought him out of sympathy, Andrew is recruited by his cousin’s ambitious and outgoing friend, Steve (Michael B. Jordan), to record something strange that they found in the forest near the party.  Though reluctant to help, Andrew agrees and the dark picture of his life starts to become brighter. 

After their strange encounter in the woods, the boys quickly become very good friends, especially when they realize that they all have come to share the power of telekinesis from the strange occurrence they recorded. They all appear to be having fun, learning all about, and making light of, what they can do with their powers as Steve reads from his smartphone, “Telekinesis: The ability to move, lift, vibrate —that's my favorite (laughs)— spin, bend, break or impact objects through the direct influence of mental power or other non-physical means.”  Just as any group of teenagers would do, Andrew, Matt, and Steve play with their powers, using toys and playing little tricks to get a laugh out of their circumstances, adding to the realism of Trank’s portrayal.   

Their lives all seem to be improving, particularly Andrew’s, as he becomes more confident and outgoing, less affected by the troubles his abusive father pushes on him; however, it all comes to a screeching halt when Andrew goes beyond their usual playful use for their power and rolls a speeding car into a ditch without warning.  Eventually, they find that they need rules when dealing with so much responsibility, and this is when the characters start to look at their abilities in a different light. 

Though the movie seems to bend back towards happier times, it seems impossible that they can last when a series of events causes Andrew to regress into a state of misery, eventually leading to pure rage.  He practices his ability of destruction as would a psychopath-in-the-making, killing a spider by bringing it into the air and dismembering all of its limbs.  He calls himself an “apex predator” or a predator with no predators of its own, and one can only imagine where he goes from there.  

Chronicle is a contemporary tale that teaches the age-old moral that with great power comes great responsibility.  Though its science-fiction nature and nearly unthinkable circumstances may seem impossible to imagine, this film’s cinematographic storytelling allows the viewer to become completely immersed into the riveting conclusion of this chronicle. The actors who played the main characters (Andrew, Matt, and Steve) have not appeared in many films, which allows the viewer to believe that they are following not some actor in a role, but rather a character experiencing an amazing set of circumstances. With its cast, film style, and directing, Chronicle is a movie that feels far more substantial than its eighty-three minute playtime.  The true meaning of the film seems to be that without enough nurturing and understanding, anyone can turn into the darkest form of themselves, a predator beyond all reasoning. 

(I wrote this for a class, but to not be accused of plagiarism, I credit the words above to myself: Maria NeCastro.)