CHRONICLE
Dane DeHann as Andrew Detmer
Michael B. Jordan as Steve Montgomery
Alex Russell as Matt Garetty
Directed by Josh Trank
83 minutes


An unpopular teen named Andrew is bullied at school and at home by his emotionally and physically abusive father. The only friends he has is his mother who is stricken with cancer, and his cousin, Matt. Andrew decides to document his life on video. When Matt invites him to a party to try to get him out of his shell, he begs Andrew not to bring his camera. Andrew does and of course gets himself into yet another beat down.

As Andrew is outside licking his wounds he's approached by popular kid Steve (who's running for class president), he asks Andrew to come with him to see what he and Matt found. Turns out they found some hole in the woods (presumably from a meteor) and as expected Matt and Steve check it out by going down. Andrew reluctantly follows. The trio is exposed to radioactive (?) energy from the meteorite and develop telekinetic powers.

At first it's all fun and games with somewhat harmless pranks any of us would be tempted to pull if we were given the opportunity. The problem is  Andrew is a lifelong victim of bullying, and as you
 know you can kick a dog but so many times. Matt and Steve try to rationalize with Andrew but he spirals out of control.

Chronicle, is a hybrid of familiar stories. The abused teen a la Stephen King's “Carrie”, an Americanized version of “Akira” (Hollywood please note that Chronicle has done it right, don't try to remake Akira), and a little bit of televisions 'Heroes”. It also brings to mind real life tragedies like Columbine, and the plethora of bullying/cyber bullying that you see on today’s news.

Andrew is the focal point, and although you don't get much back story on the other characters they are of equal importance and that is a testament to good acting. As likeable as Steve's character is, it did have a bit of a too good to be true kind of feeling. I mean in high school how many combo popular kids /jocks would be caught talking to an outcast? Let alone saying the outcast is his best friend? There was also the ubiquitous “shaky cam” in certain scenes. Granted, if your falling down a flight of stairs, the camera won't be steady. But most cameras have image stabilizers now so what's up with that?

It's rare that I say this considering today's ticket prices, but I'd go to see this again.