Dir: Josh Trank
Cast: Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B Jordan
I first saw the trailer for this when watching Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and thought it looked OK but the same old same old re found footage films. I actually only saw it originally because I was meeting a friend later that evening to watch another film (The Vow) and I had finished work early so could squeeze it in, I thought I'd missed the beginning but only a few days later I was out with another group and owing to timings I saw the film again and discovered I actually got into the screening just in time. The reason for this is that it just starts. Andrew (Dane DeHaan) is a bullied loner with a very tragic home life, his mother (Bo Petersen) is dying and his father (Michael Kelly) is an abusive drunk. He comes into possession of a camera and decides to chronicle his life, his cousin Matt (Alex Russell ) sort of takes him under his wing and tries to makes his life better by inviting him to a party. Here he meets Matt's friend Steve (Michael B Jordan) , Steve has discovered something rather odd, a huge hole in the middle of almost nowhere and he wants to use Andrews camera. Andrew is for obvious reasons very attached to his camera so goes down into the hole with Steve and Matt. When down there they witness something very strange that results in them all having nosebleeds.
SPOILERS!!!!!
The screen then goes blank and we flash forward to discover that the guys have developed some special powers. It starts off as telepathically moving balls and eventually they learn to fly. After the usual fun that any normal human being would have with these new found powers (probably my biggest reason for loving this film) things take a dark turn. As already stated Andrew has a very bad life and after an even nastier than usual altercation with his father and an especially bad day he flys high up in the air in an attempt to let his anger out but also be by himself. Owing to the telepathic ability Steve senses something is wrong with Andrew and he is able to find him. Andrew just wants to be alone, there is a bad storm happening and tragically Steve gets hit by lightening and dies. This serves to prove not only how dangerous these powers can be but also that they are not in fact immortal. After a few more humiliating and nasty incidents Andrew decides to use his powers to hurt those who hurt him. This lands him in hospital. When he comes round his father is there and tells him his mother has died and he blames Andrew for it. The father attempts to kill Andrew but Andrew is still strong enough to overpower him. Meanwhile Matt is at a party but senses something is wrong and heads to the hospital where he and Andrew have a battle to the death.
Apart from the boys using the powers in a normal none superhero-y way at the beginning of the film I also liked the fact that although it was found footage the camera work was not restricted to just one camera, the film incorporated the use of the news, police cameras and CCTV. This meant for a better, rounded view of the action. The ending did seem a bit trite when I first watched it and even more so the second time round but thinking about it again it was actually a good thing to do as it showed that although Andrew did flip (and who can really blame him?) at the end of the day he was just a peaceful, slightly weak boy who just didn't want anymore pain in his life, which essentially is what he got, living on through his camera.
With this and Lawless I have to point out that Dane DeHaan is definitely my newcomer of the year and yes he does look like DiCaprio and yes his career does seem to be mirroring slightly!
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