Chronicle

This oft-told tale is co-written by Max Landis and Josh Trank, with Trank as the director.

The movie starts out with Andrew (Dane DeHaan) videotaping himself to chronicle his life. For a few moments I was afraid I'd drifted into "Blair Witch" territory, but the self-taping was the only similarity. We meet the likable Matt (Alex Russell), Andrew's cousin. Matt is smarter than the average kid and shows it. Then we meet the third of our trio of heroes, Steve (Michael B. Jordan). Steve is the most popular kid in high school, a shoo-in for class president.

At a party, Andrew is lured by Steve and Matt out into the woods where they've found a mysterious hole which the fall or jump in. In the depths of the cavern they find a mysterious glowing thing that gives them powers.

I had read a review that made the movie sound great, and saw previews that made me expect a semi-comedy. The thrust seemed to be that high school boys get super powers and explore them as only the insane, immature boys in their teens could. I was misled.

It's another coming-of-age movie. Andrew is a nerd, he's bullied at school, he's bullied at home, and he's got no girls. His self-taping may be a way to distance himself from himself, dissociation it's called. "This isn't happening to me, it's that guy on the monitor there."

The movie drags till they get super powers and explore them. It's mildly amusing watching the teens learn to move things (they make a tower of legos), learn to levitate, and then move on to using a leaf blower and blow girls' skirts up. Childish stuff. But Andrew is abused at home, and his powers take a dark turn. He gets in the school talent show and pretends to be a magician who can play card tricks, juggle, and walk a tightrope, all of which are manifestations of his powers. The crowd goes wild! Only a nerd could imagine a high school crowd going wild over card tricks and juggling, I'm afraid. But that's the script. Things go wrong with Andrew's attempted initiation into sex, and he spirals into the dark side as things go wrong at home.

In addition to some script problems, DeHaan is 25, Russell is 25, and Michael is is 25. All the students at the high school look like they're in their mid-twenties, too, and the parties are even more sophisticated that 20-somethings throw. I'm sorry to say there was zero credibility as a high school group. And while there's some motivation for Andrew's use of the powers for evil, there are no real scenes showing Andrew, Matt, and Steve as people who have some feelings and longings. Steve is the least well-scripted of the trio, and when he dies, there's no sense of loss from us the audience nor from the remaining duo. It's basically a set up for the power struggle between good and evil as Matt and Andrew fight with big things up in the sky and through skyscrapers.

It's basically the same coming of age movie as "Star Wars," "Donnie Darko," and their sci-fi ilk. I would say it's not worth seeing as it adds nothing to the genre. If you like failed experiments, I recommend as noble failures "Donnie Darko" and "Liquid Sky," a totally different coming of age story directed and co-written by Slava Tsukerman. The best coming of age movie is "The Princess Bride," followed closely by "Stand by Me," both directed by the brilliant Rob Reiner.