Movie Review: 'Chronicle' is above average sci-fi thriller

The sci-fi thriller "Chronicle," currently showing at the Horizon Stadium inside the Horizon Casino Resort in Stateline at Lake Tahoe, explores the world of ESP in general and telekinesis in particular. The explorers at three teens, Andrew (Dane DeHaan), Steve (Michael B. Jordan) and Matt (Alex Russell). Most of the movie is composed of film clips from Andrew, a nerd and unpopular at school.

The three pals ask Andrew, who photographs everything, to photo a hole in the ground. The three enter the hole and find a blue rock which glows as they touch it. Quickly their noses begin to bleed.

They begin to explore their ESP skills, building toys without touching the blocks. Andrew while riding with the other two sends a tailgating truck off the road with hi superhuman powers.

The three decide to obey laws of fairness and then discover that they can fly. And they do, soaring amid the clouds freely. Andrew becomes angry with Steve and causes a lighning bolt to strike and kill him. Matt thinks Andrew may have killed Steve and confronts him but Andrew denies it.

Steve talks Andrew into entering a school talent show and he does, using his ESP skills in a magic act. Classmate Monica (Anna Wood) comes on to him and they sneak off for sex, but Andrew vomits on her from drinking too much and she tells everybody.

Andrew repels his drunken father with ESP and decides to rob a store to get money for medication to treat his cancer-struck mother. He robs the store but in the process blows up the gas station-store. He is injured by the blast.

In the hospital Andrew is confronted by his drunken father who tells him his mother has died. Andrew blows out a wall of the hospital and floats there until Matt comes. The two battle, nearly destroying Seattle but killing many and ruining many buildings. Steve finally slays Andrew with a speak grabbed from a nearby statue.

Steve winds up in Tibet, where Andrew has said he wanted to fly to with their new skills. Steve philosophizes about it all as he heads off toward a Buddhist temple.

OK, you've got to suspend disbelief here as is almost always the case with Sci-fi. But some problems exist anyhow. Andrew's girlfriend Monica is clearly college age. The use of camera clips is never explained. And in Tibet Steve's breath is never clouded, despite being surrounded by snow in the Himalayas.

But those are nits. If sci-fi is your gig, enjoy this. Direction by Josh Trank is fluid, script doesn't have many holes and it all works out satisfactorily. Enjoy!

— Sam Bauman

Cast
Dane DeHaan as Andrew Detmer
Michael B. Jordan as Steve Montgomery
Alex Russell as Matt Garetty
Michael Kelly as Richard Detmer
Ashley Hinshaw as Casey Letter
Anna Wood as Monica
Joe Vaz as Michael Ernestos

Directed by: Josh Trank
Produced by: John Davis, Adam Schroeder
Screenplay by: Max Landis
Story by: Max Landis, Josh Trank
Cinematography: Matthew Jensen
Editing by: Elliot Greenberg Studio Davis Entertainment Distributed by 20th Century Fox Release
Running time: 83 minutes, rated PG-13.