Chronicle

Whilst this film was initially received with excitement and enthusiasm, and still has a high ‘fresh’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I would argue that its only innovation is a new combination of now tired, well-used narratives. Some might say that there is very rarely anything new in a lot of the movies we praise – it is all a combination of what has gone before – but for me success depends upon how well it is handled or manipulated. Chronicle is essentially a film about social exclusion, the typical teenage outsider movie. However, it combines this with both science-fiction (not original in itself – see Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or The Faculty) and the found-footage technique. This last element is now becoming a loose genre. The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, and Paranormal Activity have been its main successes. But there always comes a point in such movies when we ask: why are you still filming? Why haven’t you put the camera down? Along with this other questions occur to us – who has edited this together?  Who is watching this film? Ultimately, these concerns do urge us to ask serious questions about the nature of all film – who is viewing in any movie we watch? What position does the camera take on the action it is filming? – but we are capable of doing this without being prompted by found-footage. Where Chronicle does exceed slightly beyond other social exclusion films is that the main character is never fully included. Whilst in other movies of this type he/she eventually becomes popular and accepted, here he moves beyond a transient, superficial acceptance and into a deeper, darker exclusion. This is perhaps the inevitable outcome of any social outsider – they can never be included, can never resolve their issues – and gives the film, as I said, it’s only point of originality. However, the film ends rather weakly and unsatisfactorily. Nothing is resolved or understood. A sequel, however, is apparently on the way.