'Chronicle' interesting for viewers who don't mind 'found-footage' style

High school can be fun, but it can also be downright depressing. Those who are popular and have a good home life will find things going pretty smoothly. Those who don't have those benefits will have some problems either with grades or social life or both.

This is all too apparent in the film "Chronicle." Andrew Detmer is not happy in high school. His father was a firefighter but now draws disability and drinks. His family cannot afford the medication for his bedridden mother. Andrew gets picked on by thugs in his neighborhood, as well as the bullies at school.

He has a new hobby, though: filming his life. He got a cheap video camera and is now filming everything around him. He catches rides to school with his cousin Matt, who suggests he go to a party with him one evening so he can meet a girl. Andrew goes and takes his camera.

While outside the party, another teen named Steve is looking for Andrew so he and Matt can document something they have found in the woods. When they go inside what they assume is a sinkhole because of the noise coming from it, they discover a weirdly shaped pod is making the noise. It disrupts Andrew’s camera so much that it cuts out.

Soon, the three find they can control objects with their minds. As they keep “practicing” they feel themselves getting stronger and stronger until they can move very heavy objects and more. They also realize that they must control whatever is happening to them. One of them, though, can’t or doesn’t want to keep in control.

Nowadays it seems people have a strange need to share their lives on video or on the Internet. This has given rise to the “found footage” genre of film, which is the case with "Chronicle." The whole film is found footage, and at some points viewers can't help but wonder, “How did they get that?” Some of the angles used are clearly from security cameras, but other camera sources have to be explained in the dialogue, which is a technique that doesn’t work very well.

The story in this film, however, does work. It was nice to see how things were ramped up as the story progressed. The three friends play off of each other well, and they make it feel as if they are in high school. Someone on this film did a good job on the special effects, making them look real.