Chronicle
Rent/Purchase
Three high school students make an incredible discovery, leading to their developing uncanny powers beyond their understanding. As they learn to control their abilities and use them to their advantage, their lives start to spin out of control, and their darker sides begin to take over.
What critics thought
Chronicle won over most critics by using its found-footage framework to tell a genuinely character-driven superhero origin story, with Ebert and others singling out how it earns real emotional stakes alongside its spectacle. A minority found the premise thin and the moral about corrupting power too familiar to land with any force.
“From [the] deceptively ordinary beginning, Josh Trank's Chronicle grows into an uncommonly entertaining movie that involves elements of a superhero origin story, a science-fiction fantasy and a drama about a disturbed teenager.”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“Unlike other mock documentaries, which unconvincingly pass themselves off as real, Chronicle cleverly embraces the format as shorthand for a new kind of naturalism, inviting audiences to suspend disbelief and join in the fantasy of being able to do anything with their minds.”
Peter Debruge·Variety
“A clever twist on superpowers and hand-held filmmaking that stumbles before the ending.”
Todd McCarthy·The Hollywood Reporter
“offers up little more than a tired morality play about the dangers of power, rehashing stale insights about the narcissism of the documentary impulse.”
Andrew Schenker·Slant Magazine
Genres
Adventure, Comedy, Crime
Cast & Crew
DirectorJosh Trank
StarringDane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan, Michael Kelly, Ashley Hinshaw
ComposerYoussef Guezoum
Chronicle
Three high school students make an incredible discovery, leading to their developing uncanny powers beyond their understanding. As they learn to control their abilities and use them to their advantage, their lives start to spin out of control, and their darker sides begin to take over.
What critics thought
Chronicle won over most critics by using its found-footage framework to tell a genuinely character-driven superhero origin story, with Ebert and others singling out how it earns real emotional stakes alongside its spectacle. A minority found the premise thin and the moral about corrupting power too familiar to land with any force.
“From [the] deceptively ordinary beginning, Josh Trank's Chronicle grows into an uncommonly entertaining movie that involves elements of a superhero origin story, a science-fiction fantasy and a drama about a disturbed teenager.”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“Unlike other mock documentaries, which unconvincingly pass themselves off as real, Chronicle cleverly embraces the format as shorthand for a new kind of naturalism, inviting audiences to suspend disbelief and join in the fantasy of being able to do anything with their minds.”
Peter Debruge·Variety
“A clever twist on superpowers and hand-held filmmaking that stumbles before the ending.”
Todd McCarthy·The Hollywood Reporter
“offers up little more than a tired morality play about the dangers of power, rehashing stale insights about the narcissism of the documentary impulse.”
Andrew Schenker·Slant Magazine
Genres
Adventure, Comedy, Crime
Cast & Crew
DirectorJosh Trank
StarringDane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan, Michael Kelly, Ashley Hinshaw
ComposerYoussef Guezoum
Rent/Purchase