Chronicle is a lo-fi superhero movie—or is it really about a supervillain? That tension elevates the film, in which three high schoolers (Dane DeHaan, Michael B. Jordan, and Alex Russell) attain levitational powers after encountering a meteorite in the woods. Their first impulse is to pull a bunch of pranks, but then the antisocial tendencies of Andrew (DeHaan), who is bullied at school and abused at home, begin to come to the forefront. Director Josh Trank, working from a screenplay by Max Landis, employs a found footage approach, so that everything we see is recorded by Andrew’s videocam. Just when the technique begins to feel forced and gimmicky, it pays off for a crackerjack confrontational climax seen mostly via news cameras and bystanders’ mobile phones. The result is something more thrilling than the finales of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League combined.
