Our movie choice this week was Chronicle or The Woman In Black. We picked Chronicle.
A teenaged boy, alienated at home and at school, decides he’s going to film everything in his life from now on (hence the conceit of this movie). He ends up recording how he and two friends find a weird glowing object in the woods and the effects that come about as a result: they start developing telekinetic powers and a weird sense of what’s going on with the other two in this clique. Their powers seem to grow the more they use them. And if they can stick to the rules and not hurt other people or let anybody else know what’s going on, they’ll be fine.
You can probably guess what happens next.
Chronicle is a pretty simple movie. This summary covers everything in the movie. There is nothing extraneous: why is the main character alienated at home? You’re going to find out two or three times. How do the kids practice with their powers? You’re going to see three or four different examples of how they learn to do new things and increase their powers.
Darin wanted to see Chronicle because one of the teenagers is played by Michael B. Jordan, whom he really liked in Friday Night Lights. He’s pretty good. The other two are pretty good too, although they don’t show great range. They don’t have to: this movie isn’t a character study. It’s mostly a good depiction of how you can make an effective little B-movie with an unknown cast and probably a small budget. I didn’t feel as though I’d wasted my time or money watching Chronicle. I wasn’t watching high art, either.
Lowest point: Something happens in the movie that had me turning to Darin and saying, “Seriously? They went with that cliché?” I know why they did it but…honestly, storytellers out there, if you find yourself going with this particular cliché (here goes, in rot-13: Gur oynpx thl qvrf svefg) REWRITE YOUR SCRIPT PLEASE. Because it bugs the hell out of me, every single time it happens, and it still happens what seems like every single time.
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Wow. According to a comment on Entertainment Weekly’s article about the special effects in Chronicle, the movie was made for 15 million dollars.
That is nothing less of stupendous.
That is less than craft services on most major budget pictures, and Chronicle was number one this week.
Just…wow.