review by Ēriks Beķers
Chronicle 2012
Watched May 02, 2012
Ēriks Beķers’s review:
I like CHRONICLE, I really do. But I bet had it not been done in the found footage format, I would have loved it. It's an original superhero story mashed with CARRIE and with just the right amount of Amblin spirit mixed in. And the gimmicky aesthetic just damn near ruins it. I'll give director Josh Trank some credit for cleverly going around the limitations of the format, especially in the end, but all that effort just begs the question - why shoot the film this way in the first place?
And yet, CHRONICLE works. It works amazingly well, especially because Andrew is such a great, powerful character. Trank and screenwriter Max Landis know that empathy is a powerful tool in filmmaking, especially if the film in question mostly revolves around a super-villain in the making.
I really couldn't get over the gimmicky shape they put this in.
letterboxd.com/dirkhasselman/film/chronicle/
Again, I like that Trank goes out of his way to escape the singular camera limitations. It almost seems like he's not too fond of the format himself. Which I can totally buy - it's possible that the studio offered Trank and Landis a found-footage CHRONICLE, or no CHRONICLE at all. If that's the case, I'll gladly take the former.
And the character work helps a lot. These guys have a lot of chemistry and Trank milks it all.
It's a flawed film, no doubt, but I can't write it off just because of the aesthetic.
I like your Carrie comparison. I hadn't thought of that.
I think you might be right about the studio's found footage ultimatum. It almost feels like an afterthought. I remember thinking that it added nothing to the film, except extra dialogue, when people have to keep explaining why there's suddenly another camera present. "This is for my blog."
I think the bits with Andrew's cousin's girlfriend (I honestly don't remember their names) give this away the most. The fact that she has her camera with her at all times ranged from understandable (the blog thing) to borderline disturbing (when she was shooting their conversation at the door). Every time these two conversed whilst holding their respective cameras, I felt like punching the screen.