At the end of 2012, this movie will be in my list of the top half dozen movies of the year. It is rare for me to consider that true of a movie I see in the first month or so of the year and be fairly sure it will be true. This is a fantastic genre blending movie. It could stand alone in a great many genres, be it a superhero origin story, a coming of age story, an abuse and revenge story, a science fiction story or a great many other subgenres. All the while, it operates in the more contemporary stylistic genre of the “found footage” movie. As somebody who utterly hates reality TV, and the style of shakey-cam in general, I have surprisingly liked most of the found footage style movies of the last decade or more (the many that have follow the mother of the genre, The Blair Witch Project). It’s hard for me to explain why I like most of them. Perhaps it’s the fact that it forces the film makers to come at material from an unusual perspective. It gives the cast and crew something of a narrative exercise having to work around the conceptual format. It’s also a very subjective approach to storytelling, which is kind of key to how Chronicle unfolds. As it frees itself from the stylistic norm, in truly ingenious ways, the role of the narrative subject shifts between characters.

Writing: This is one of those movies that is wildly clever in almost every way. The dialog is very real and grounded, but finds ways of being uniquely playful and subtle. There are a great many subtexts going on with the characters. The pacing is also a very tricky piece to the puzzle, and they nail it. There are multiple catalysts to the characters and plot, and each one of them kicks in at just the right time to shift the movie into multiple phases, like the stages of an Atlas rocket. It’s a remarkably well crafted script, written by Max Landis – son of director John Landis. This is his first feature film credit, with just a few TV and short film credits on his resume. Darned impressive debut work.

Production: This movie has some hugely ambitious production sequences in, around and above Seattle. For what was probably a modest budget movie, it really puts forth a great effort. In some of the more challenging sequences, they might not quite get everything absolutely perfect, but they come very close. Of particular challenge are flying sequences. It is something that movies have always been challenged by, and this movie does at least as good as anyone else has. There is one production aspect that I must gleefully thank the writers for – a genius story point to change the handheld camera work into an honest-to-goodness new approach to a steadicam. When you see it, you’ll know what I mean. Pure brilliance.

Cast: The three main characters are very well portrayed by relative unknowns. Dane DeHaan has the most layered and challenging role, and he hits it out of the park. He nails all the various tumultuous sides to the role, from the playful to the detached to the victimized to the outsider to the sociopath, he hits all the notes just right. Alex Russell does a fine job with the more intellectual, charming and all-around good guy role. And Michael B. Jordan drops into the role of the friendly and outgoing class president candidate. Jordan was the only of the three actors I recognized, from a recurring role on Parenthood (I didn’t figure out where I recognized him from until halfway driving home from the movie). All three of them show nice potential. Keep an eye on DeHaan, though, as he should be able to leverage this performance for just about any kind of role somebody would be interested in casting him. Other supporting players are cast with believable actors who come through nicely. I honestly didn’t recognize any of them. It’s been a while where I only barely recognized just one actor.

Music: As is the case with most of the found footage subgenre, there is no music score in this movie. It’s a proper stylistic idea that there would be no score.

As I said earlier, this movie works just as well as a superhero origin story as any of the many other genres it fits. There is certainly a possibility of a sequel, and I would be anxious to see what they do with it. It shares a few aspects with the X-Men franchise, and I dare say I liked it better than any of the X-Men films (yes, even the second one). Of all the modern found footage subgenre movies, Cloverfield has been my favorite so far. I’m not sure I would rank it quite as high or higher than Cloverfield, but it certainly comes the closest.