Reason Writers at the Movies: Peter Suderman Reviews Chronicle in The Washington Times
Associate Editor Peter Suderman reviews Chronicle, a viral-video inspired riff on the superhero origin story, in today's Washington Times:
What happens when you give a trio of teen boys superpowers?
Maybe they'll goof off. Or maybe they'll decide to wreck a major city in a fit of adolescent angst.
In "Chronicle," they do both.
A cleverly twisted take on the superhero origin story, "Chronicle" is also a cautionary tale about the dangers of superpowers: There may be a superhero in all of us—but there might also be a supervillain.
Shot in a faux-documentary, found-footage digital video style that at first resembles the fake monster-invasion movie "Cloverfield," "Chronicle" is the story of three teenage boys who gain superpowers, including the mysterious ability to ensure that the camera is always on and pointed in just the right direction whenever something important is happening.
Convenient, right? Well, yes, but unlike "Cloverfield" and other similarlyYouTube-inspired genre riffs, "Chronicle" pulls it off by making the camera an integral part of the story.