Most people don’t really remember how big a phenomenon The Blair Witch Project was. I say “don’t remember” but I really mean actively suppress. This is because a disturbingly large number of you idiots thought the footage was real. I had arguments with at least a dozen people (and not anyone especially retarded, I’d call most of them average to above average as far as intelligence, though that’s still not saying much). You bring up the film today and the same idiots who thought it was real take a vocal shit on it.
Then you have another large section of the population that was supremely upset the film didn’t show “the witch”. Basically the same people who didn’t like the supremely under rated Contact because you didn’t get to see the alien. Venture Bros has a pretty good explanation of why that’s just a stupid opinion.
But I’m getting off track, I think found footage movies can be especially powerful. One can spend millions on a production that, using special effects and complicated film techniques, place the viewer in the heart of action. But somehow, grainy handheld camera footage seems more real and gives the viewer a sense (though he knows better in his heart) the action has really happened. And just to be clear, I’m talking about fiction that is made to appear as if someone recorded an actual event and the recording was later “found”. The film version of the literary style of Dracula or War of the Worlds. Which is nothing new. People have been making these films since they’ve been making films.
But with the evolution of digital effects, found footage has reached a new level. Cloverfield is one such example (Oh and just a reminder: you same assholes bitch when you don’t get to see the monster and you bitch when you do; pick one). Digital effects can be rendered to easily look photoreal on the lower quality found footage. So, we can do some interesting things with these movies (jets fighting Godzilla or Cthulhu or whatever that was supposed to be in Cloverfield).
Chronicle is a story about 3 high school kids that discover SOMETHING underground that changes them. They slowly start to develop telekinetic skills and their whole world changes. And there are consequences.
The plot film device is centered around the character Andrew. He is troubled teenager who is viciously abused by his father and begins to film his life as a sort of self defense mechanism. His cousin, Matt, is a bit of a douche who is from a kinder side of the family who is given to applying quotes of great philosophers inappropriately. Matt is friendly to Andrew but is attempting to climb the cursus honorum that is high school popularity and distances himself from Andrew in public. Steve, our 3rd hero, is an gifted athlete, honors student, and a lock for class president. He’s the type of kid everyone would like to hate, but he’s just too damn kind hearted.
Anyway, the meat of the story begins when the 3 kids are all at a rave (Steve rocking, Matt trying to rock, Andrew filming then becoming a victim of drunken bullying). Steve and Matt discover the SOMETHING underground (it was making nifty noises), and rescue Andrew from his post bullied depression because Andrew has his camera and they want to film it.
The SOMETHING has an adverse (or beneficial depending on how you look at it) reaction to the camera and the 3 kids barely get back to the surface alive. Over time they slowly realize they can move things with their minds. And they’re getting stronger.
Each of the 3’s very different backgrounds and personalities come into play as they try to cope with their newfound ability.
The film does an excellent job of extrapolating what kind of things somebody could do with telekinesis as well as how they might play on the main characters’ respective psychologies. The filmmakers do high school pain and awkwardness and deepish philosophical questions equally well.
I was surprised how much I enjoyed this film. Well worth seeing in the theater.