Chronicle

Teen Andrew (Dane DeHaan) has some issues. He’s bullied at school, his mom is dying slowly and his unemployed old man only comes out of the bottle long enough to slap Andrew around. So Andrew buys a camera to chronicle these abuses but gets distracted when his cousin Matt (Alex Russell) and all-around popular dude Steve (Michael B. Jordan) drag him away from a ragin’ rave and pull him down into a rabbit hole that leads to a big, glowing … um, something. After an electromagnetic pulse of some kind knocks them on their asses, they wake up discovering that they now have nascent super powers. Andrew soon forgets the “with great power comes great responsibility” admonition and starts using his powers to blow shit up. Chronicle is clever, fun, well-paced and the leads come across as actual teenaged dudes, rather than brooding male models in high school jackets. Of course—unlike its used car-priced “found-footage” antecedents—it cost $12 million to make. But all that money doesn’t come into play until the effects-heavy battle royale that serves as a third act. And the battle royale is pretty spiffy. Cinemark 14 and Feather River Cinemas. Rated PG-13