Chronicle

Since Cloverfield, the only other standout found-footage film I’d seen was [REC], and honestly, nothing else really impressed me—until Chronicle. This movie is a gem. I’m usually not a fan of shaky cam, but when it’s done right, I can appreciate it, and Chronicle nails it. Everything you need to see is crystal clear. What blew me away was how they pulled off such massive destruction on a small budget. Half the city gets wrecked, and it looks not only realistic but absolutely fantastic. The final act is a full-throttle action ride with no missteps, and I loved every minute of it. Chronicle proves you can make a great movie with shaky cam as long as you give the audience something worth watching—and this one delivers plenty of that. (09/14/2012)

A novel approach to a superheroes movie. Trank’s experiment with found footage, this time not from one but from several cameras, worked out just great. The rotating shots are effective, especially thanks to Andy’s well-practiced telekinesis. The evolution of the three main protagonists is like out of a textbook (and a good job of acting). Basically, none of the characters behaves black and white and they have logical reasons for their actions. Setting the movie in Seattle gives a welcome touch of reality. For just a few bucks extra we are treated to more tasty visual morsels than any regular fan would expect. (02/06/2013)

Watch a few randomly selected meaningless home videos about bored teens on YouTube loafing about, every now and then add in some random special effects, and you'll immediately have a sequel to The Chronicle that is indistinguishable from the “original"; if you're interested in the Thai remake, watch a few randomly selected meaningless home videos about bored teens in loafing about Thailand on YouTube... And you know the rest. (05/27/2012)

Supernatural abilities and emotionally frustrated individuals don't exactly go together, which Chronicle shows in a very interesting way. It's got absolutely great gradation and for 12 million it managed to produce a lot of music. A non-mainstream variation on superhero (or super-villain) movies that works very well with the characters on a very frugal screen and creates a pleasantly fresh impression within the genre. [70%] (06/25/2022)

A sympathetic film that is not as small as it might seem. Everything is based on an idea as if taken from the Czech The Flying Cestmír, but the fireworks of ideas that the creators have presented are really great. For example, "just" the idea of letting the main character endowed with telekinesis film with his handheld camera and fly around with it so that the shaky home video shots suddenly become almost professional camera rides. I also wanted to scream during the scene with the flying in the clouds, I closed my eyes during the scene with the spider... It was definitely impressive. The director and screenwriter seem to be Star Wars fans in addition to comic book fans, which was especially evident in the incredibly imaginatively shot or rather "recorded" finale (but the similarity only came to me in retrospect, I didn't have time to make any comparisons while watching it). (09/03/2013)