Chronicle (film)
Chronicle is a 2012 American found footage film directed by Josh Trank in his feature-length directorial debut, and written by Max Landis. It follows three Seattle high school seniors—bullied Andrew, his cousin Matt, and the popular Steve —who form a bond after gaining telekinetic powers from an unknown object and using them for fun, until Andrew begins going down a darker path.
Chronicle premiered at the Gérardmer Film Festival on January 28, 2012, and was released in the United States on February 3, by 20th Century Fox. The film grossed $127 million against a budget of $15 million. It received generally positive reviews, and received a nomination for Best Science Fiction Film at the 39th Saturn Awards.
Plot
In Seattle, teenager Andrew Detmer is bullied in school and abused by his alcoholic father Richard, and his mother Karen has cancer. The family struggles with medical debt after Richard loses his firefighter job due to an injury. Andrew’s only friend is his cousin Matt Garetty. Inspired by Matt's girlfriend Casey, he buys a camera to make a video diary of his life.Matt invites Andrew to a party to help him mingle, but he leaves after his filming causes an altercation with another attendee. Popular student Steve Montgomery asks Andrew to record a large hole he and Matt found in the woods. They go down the hole and find a glowing crystalline object. The object suddenly reacts violently, and the camera shorts out.
A few days later, Andrew, Matt, and Steve develop telekinetic abilities, suffering nosebleeds when overexerting. Unable to revisit the hole after authorities close it, they use their powers for pranks, but after Andrew accidentally pushes a rude motorist into a lake, the trio agree on Matt's suggestion to exercise restraint when using their powers, especially against living beings.
After Steve discovers that the trio can fly, they agree to travel around the world together after graduation, with Andrew especially eager to visit Tibet. Steve persuades Andrew to use his powers for a magic act at the school talent show, impressing their classmates. Andrew enjoys his new popularity at a house party, but the night ends badly when he drunkenly vomits on a classmate he intended to have sex with, and Steve accidentally offends him while trying to lighten the mood.
After discovering Andrew’s hidden camera, Richard confronts him, believing he has squandered money meant for school and for Karen's medical treatments. The confrontation escalates until Andrew loses control and uses his emerging powers against Richard, resulting in a violent altercation that forces him to flee his home. Overwhelmed with emotion, he flies into a thunderstorm, where Steve manages to find him. Despite Andrew's frustration and desire for solitude, Steve refuses to leave his side, but is suddenly struck and killed by lightning, leaving Andrew devastated.
At Steve's funeral, tensions rise as Matt confronts Andrew about the incident. Andrew, feeling guilt and anger, denies any responsibility and escapes without providing answers. Later, he visits Steve's grave in private, pleading for forgiveness.
In the aftermath of the party, Andrew faces social ostracism again. Fueled by a newfound sense of power, he retaliates against a bully using his telekinetic abilities, and begins to see himself as an apex predator—stronger and justified in his aggression. Matt attempts to warn Andrew of the consequences, but their argument escalates into a fight. Andrew overpowers Matt, demanding he stays out of his life and forcing him to fly away.
Desperate to save his ailing mother, Andrew disguises himself in his father's firefighting gear, using his powers to rob a gang and a gas station. During the latter robbery, an explosion occurs, resulting in Andrew being hospitalized under police custody. A distraught Richard visits his hospital room, and reveals that Karen has died while he was searching for Andrew. Consumed by grief and anger, Richard holds Andrew responsible for her death, berating him and demanding an apology. At his breaking point, Andrew awakens and unleashes his powers, demolishing the hospital room.
Matt, sensing Andrew's turmoil through a severe nosebleed, rushes to the hospital with Casey after learning about the explosion. He finds Andrew publicly flying as he prepares to drop his injured father, and intervenes to save Richard. Matt pursues Andrew to the Space Needle and tries to reason with him, to no avail. The pair fight across the city, destroying buildings and vehicles, until Andrew completely loses control and begins lashing out at everything around him. Recognizing that Andrew is beyond saving, Matt fatally impales him with a statue spear, before flying away.
In the aftermath, Matt travels to Tibet, carrying Andrew's camera. He records a final message expressing sorrow for his friends’ fate, asserting that Andrew was not inherently bad. Matt pledges to use his powers for good, and vows to uncover the truth about their experiences. After pointing the camera towards a distant Tibetan monastery, he leaves the camera behind as he flies away.
Cast
Production
Development
had conceived the idea for Chronicle in high school and spent the following years generating ideas for the film. Up-and-coming screenwriter Jeremy Slater had collaborated with Trank while working on an unmade spec script. By 2010, Slater had moved on, leading to Trank contacting Max Landis, who agreed to co-write the film. The first draft of the script was written in three weeks after Landis had pitched the film behind Trank's back. Trank's original draft had the character of Steve being hit by a plane and dying in the middle of the second act. Landis removed this from his revisions, which "solved the entire second act". 20th Century Fox bought the rights to the project and greenlit the film with Trank serving as director in January 2011. Miles Teller auditioned for a role but was turned down as he had appeared in another found footage film, Project X.Production
For budgetary reasons, the film was shot primarily in Cape Town, South Africa, with Film Afrika Worldwide, as well as in Vancouver, Canada. Trank cited the films Akira, Carrie and The Fury as influences on Chronicle. Filming started in May 2011 and continued for 18 weeks, ending in August 2011. Cinematographer Matthew Jensen used the Arri Alexa video camera to shoot the film and Angenieux Optimo and Cook s4 lenses. Post-production techniques were used to give it a "found footage" look. A cable cam rig was used for a shot in which the character Andrew levitates his camera 120 feet into the air. The Arri Alexa camera was mounted on a skateboard to simulate Andrew's camera sliding across a floor. Stuntmen were suspended from crane wire rigs for flying scenes, with green screen special effects used for closeups of the actors. Andrew's video camera in the movie is a Canon XL1 MiniDV, and he later switches to an HD camera that resembles a Canon Vixia HF M30. His "Seattle" bedroom is actually a set that was constructed on a film studio stage in Cape Town. Due to vehicles driving on the left side of the road and having steering wheels on the right side in South Africa, American-style vehicles had to be shipped in for the production. DVD dailies were provided to the director and cinematographer by the Cape Town firm HD Hub.According to Josh Trank, Max Landis was banned from set during production and Trank has not spoken to him since 2012. Trank confirmed this on Twitter in light of Landis' sexual and emotional abuse accusations.
Release
Chronicle opened in 2,907 theaters in the United States and Canada on February 3, 2012. Box office watchers expected the film to gross $15 million for its opening weekend, the Super Bowl weekend, while Fox projected to receive around $8 million. By its first day the film had earned an estimated $8.65 million and finished the weekend as the top film with $22 million, surpassing The Woman in Black and The Grey to become the fourth-highest Super Bowl debut. Chronicle opened as a number one hit internationally, opening in 33 foreign markets such as Australia, China, and the United Kingdom, where it earned the most with $3.5 million. The film grossed $64.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $62 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $126.6 million. Chronicle was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on May 15, 2012. The film was released on DVD and a special "Lost Footage" edition for Blu-ray, which contains additional footage that was not shown in theaters.Reception
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews and an average rating of. The site's critical consensus reads, "Chronicle transcends its found-footage gimmick with a smart script, fast-paced direction, and engaging performances from the young cast." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100 based on reviews from 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying, "From deceptively ordinary beginning, Josh Trank's Chronicle grows into an uncommonly entertaining movie that involves elements of a superhero origin story, a science-fiction fantasy and a drama about a disturbed teenager.” Empire critic Mark Dinning gave the film four stars out of five, saying that it is "a stunning superhero/sci-fi that has appeared out of nowhere to demand your immediate attention." Total Film gave the film a five-star review : "Believable then bad-ass, it isn't wholly original but it does brim with emotion, imagination and modern implication." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote: "Despite a gimmicky premise, Chronicle fuels its action with characters you can laugh with, understand and even take to heart." Peter Debruge of Variety wrote: "Unlike other mock documentaries, which unconvincingly pass themselves off as real, Chronicle cleverly embraces the format as shorthand for a new kind of naturalism, inviting audiences to suspend disbelief and join in the fantasy of being able to do anything with their minds." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter called it "A clever twist on superpowers and hand-held filmmaking that stumbles before the ending."
On the negative side, Andrew Schenker of Slant Magazine gave the film two stars out of four, saying that the film, "offers up little more than a tired morality play about the dangers of power, rehashing stale insights about the narcissism of the documentary impulse."