Chronicle

Josh Trank’s first feature came from a Max Landis script. Three high schoolers find something underground and gain telekinesis; the film turns it first into a prank, then into something else. Found footage normally forces the camera into a hand; here the opposite happens. As Andrew’s power grows the camera starts riding the air, so the visual language loosens exactly where the boy’s control fails. Trank grounds this twice. One is generational: a seventeen year old in 2012 learned camera control from games, so the move comes without thinking. The other is urban: every ten feet there are a dozen or so cameras, and that density hands him conventional coverage. By the climax images arrive from traffic helicopters, news cameras, shop surveillance and bystanders’ phones. The story is set in Seattle but was shot in Cape Town. The producers weighed Australia, New Zealand, Vancouver, Michigan and Louisiana before settling on Cape Town Film Studios, and Trank housed his young cast together for a fortnight. Made for twelve million dollars, it opened at number one in North America with 22 million and finished on 126.6 million. A good fit if you want the camera’s freedom explained by the character’s power rather than handed over as a shortcut. Not for anyone who wants to skip domestic abuse; that is the film’s engine.