Chronicle (2012)

I'm generally not a fan of "found footage" films, so I was skeptical heading into Chronicle - the story of three High School students who explore a mysterious hole in a field (always a bad idea in the movies, but luckily for us characters keep venturing in).  After they come in contact with a strange foreign structure they find themselves with telekinetic powers.  Don't ask for an explanation, because the movie doesn't give one.  The focus here is on matters deeper than aliens and monsters.

The three main characters have typical HS caliber movie features: Andrew is a loner with a filming obsession, dying mother and abusive father; Steve is a popular jock; and Matt is the handsome sensitive type (and also Andrew's cousin).

Andrew's film habit is what leads to the majority of the movie employing the found footage technique.  This usually does nothing more than make the viewing experience nauseating, but it works for this material.  It gives a point of view perspective to the guys discovering and refining their new found ability to manipulate objects, and eventually themselves, in order to fly.  These scenes are a lot of fun and the CGI does not detract from the writing and performances.  The direction by Josh Trank is very technically advanced, and that is what makes the scenes so interesting and intense.

The characters respond to their power differently.  Steve and Matt just want to have fun with it, and so does Andrew at first, but things begin to turn when he nonchalantly brushes an annoying driver off the road and into a lake - nearly killing him.  There is a change in him after this.  He has discovered how powerful he can be and is entranced.  The guys panic and decide to set ground rules so their powers don't spiral out of control, but Andrew is cold and distant - he isn't buying in.

Andrew begins to lose control.  As he watches his mother die and endures the abuse of his father, he finds that his powers have given his rage an outlet that never existed before. A humiliating sexual encounter is Andrew's tipping point and the control over his powers completely collapses.

Society functions because its members keep themselves in check.  If we acted on every impulse there would be chaos - even an average person would become a damaging force.  The binding factors are our ability to control ourselves as well as the consequences that we know would come if we did not.  Chronicle is a study of what happens when the penalties are removed and we are free to determine the outcome.  Andrew had terrible demons to be sure, but many have similar or worse lurking in the depths of their mind.  Chronicle asks what would happen if they could safely exorcise them.

4/4 stars

Wendy and Lucy (2008)

This is one of the finer examples of powerful minimalist film-making I have ever seen.  It is a story of a homeless woman named Wendy (Michelle Williams) making her way to Alaska to look for work in a cannery with her only remaining friend (her dog Lucy).  A series of events in an Oregon town separate them, and the bulk of the film's 80 minute running time is devoted to Wendy's desperate search for her missing companion.

Wendy sleeps in her car, bathes and changes close in a local gas station restroom and tries in vain to find food for Lucy.  Michelle Williams is brilliant in a role that is very restrained.  She is able to inspire empathy in the audience by her mere presence as a frightened and courageous young woman who has been cast off by family and society.  I felt like I knew Wendy without her having to say a word.  When she loses her friend the stakes are incredibly high, and an uneasy panic began to mount in me as she encountered every obstacle in her search.

Along they way she encounters townspeople, both friendly and otherwise.  The most notable is a kind old security guard to watches over a local drugstore that no one ever seems to visit.  He sees something in her that compels him to help with what little means he has.  It's refreshing to see a character that exemplifies human decency the way he does.

A movie like this is what I live for as a fan of film.  It doesn't concern itself with a complex plot or any other cliche.  It simply presents a situation and allows us to be absorbed and affected by it on our own terms.  I wanted nothing more than to be able to help Wendy, an unnoticed human being in pain. It made me reflect on times when I may have acted just like the townspeople who ignore her.  I will think differently about the next person like her that I see.  Films can elicit unexpected feelings in you.  Wendy and Lucy does this, and is an example of why I love the movies.

4/4 stars