‘Chronicle’ gives us a strong male lead beginning as a loner from the generic high school crowd while dealing with his terminally ill mother and abusive father. His two best friends, his cousin and the most popular student at their school, are all what is keeping him sane and are also his security blanket to avoid having to deal with his world collapsing around him. They’re not bullies and try their best to make him popular even after receiving their powers after investigating a surprise hidden underground. That’s not the case with the group of teens in ‘Project X’. The non-jerks are the cameraman Dax (Dax Flame) and JB (Jonathan Daniel Brown), the heavyweight/nerdy best friend with knowledge of fingering women. The thorn in their sides is Costa (Oliver Cooper), the man with the plan of creating Thomas’ (Thomas Mann) birthday bash while, at the same time, constantly teases JB due to his weight, pull pranks with the school’s teleprompter and cares nothing about women but their chests. He’s Jonah Hill’s Seth from ‘Superbad’ without Emma Stone’s “Jules” character to pine over and without worry about whether or not he’ll keep in contact with his friends after high school. He’s already hated upon within the first two-five minutes of the film leading to asking Thomas about why bother being friends with him. Whenever something breaks in Thomas’ house during the party, he says that it can be fixed before his parents return from their anniversary. When a neighbor comes to the house in an effort to shut the party down, as well as asking the patrons to turn down the noise level, one of the too young for the party kids hired as security tasers him resulting with said child being congratulated for keeping the party from being ruined. Costa, however, can’t save the child’s face once the wielder of said taser gun is punched in the face with Dax filming the evidence for a possible court case.
Back to ‘Chronicle’, at least the parties don’t disturb the peace but results in 1) proving that I’ve attended to better raves and 2) it’s your responsibility to ensure that you don’t drink too much lest you want to ruin the chances of getting laid for the first time because of you puking on your partner. If the number two option occurs, everyone needs to stay back. It can lead to the powers going out of control resulting in one of the greatest fights ever seen on film. This occurs with Andrew (played by Dane DeHaan) viewing his powers as the comfort and weapons needed to change his life, but, in the process, endangering others. In ‘Project X’ without the puking, being drunk along with being taken by the hand by one of the most popular women in school wanting to make sweet love with Thomas results in a cliché coming a mile away seen in many films in various genres. With the possibility of losing love and chaos ensues, the party of the century becomes a survival game. Besides seeing the patrons scatter to avoid arrest, tear gas, and a flamethrower, there are times when Thomas is unsure of how to make everything right again. The same happens with Costa, but by the time the police get involved with the party and the party’s end, mixed feelings develop. Costa, throughout the film, seems to care about only himself and giving the people a fun time without the consequences until realizing that he wants his to make sure that he, Thomas and the other men in his crew avoid being in trouble and that he can’t fix everything. While wanting to feel sorry for him, remember that there’s the possibility of Thomas not wanting a party in the magnitude seen in the film. Andrew, on the other hand, wants the people to realize what happens when a person bottles up guilt and shame caused by his actions as well as others and feeling as if no one’s available to help him make everything better.
Despite what critics have said both positively and negatively about both found footage films, I like them yet the most flawed is ‘Project X’. ‘Chronicle’ is fictional but it gives a more realistic take on dealing with the issues people deal with everyday regardless of age. Bottling up emotions can result to an end they will never see coming; a negative one that does not resolve every problem but results in loss of who they are inside and out. They become the beasts rather than being loved with the beauty within every man and woman seen from within. What lies within ‘Project X’, according to Claudia Puig of USA Today, is a film “filled with faceless crowds and nary a character resembling a human being.”[2] The film is also a laugh riot and awe as every moment taking place results as enjoying the main leads comeuppances especially for Costa. Wetting the appetites of lovers of the film and increasing the anger of every reviewer hating the film with the tacked-on sequel bit at the end is a bit better than that of ’21 Jump Street’s where it’ll make Nick Cannon’s ‘Underclassman’s an instant classic. As for what to expect within the March 16th release, that’s another story.
[1] Berardinelli, James. “Chronicle”. Reelviews Movie Reviews. http://www.reelviews.net/php_review_template.php?identifier=2417 2012, February 3
[2] Puig, Claudia. “’Project X’ Fails in Every Endeavor”. USA Today. 2012, March 2, Movie Review.
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