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Chronicle | 2012 | PG-13 | - 4.7.4

Three teenage boys discover a glowing orb and after touching it become endowed with unusual abilities. Unfortunately they are not all able to deal with their newfound talents and popularity. With Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan, Michael Kelly, Ashley Hinshaw, Bo Petersen, Anna Wood, Rudi Malcolm and Luke Tyler. Directed by Josh Trank. [1:23]

SEX/NUDITY 4 - A teenage girl is shown coming out of a bedroom, she wipes her mouth, says, "You're disgusting" and we see some goo in her hair; a teen boy passes her and goes into the bedroom where another teen boy is pulling up his pants and we see goo splattered on his lapel (it is not clear what happened; either the girl was performing oral sex on the boy and he ejaculated, or he vomited). A teenage girl kisses a teenage boy.
 We see cheerleaders wearing short skirts and sleeveless tops (cleavage, bare shoulders, bare legs and abdomens are visible) practicing cheers while a teen boy watches in a few scenes; during one such scene one cheerleader asks the boy to stop filming them because "it's creepy." A teen girl wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage. A teenage boy makes a leaf blower turn on from a distance and moves it to blow under the skirts of a few girls, who scream when their skirts blow up and show their underwear (we see black panties and bare things).
 A teen boy says of another teen boy, "He's upstairs with the girl with the pink hair," implying that they are having sex. A teenage boy says, "I haven't had sex since summer" and another says, "I haven't had sex since forever." During a conversation about a jealous girlfriend a teen boy says, "We're his mistress" referring to himself and another teen boy. We hear a phone message from a teen boy's girlfriend complaining that he is not spending time with her. After a teen boy says that he'd like to go to Tibet another boy says "there are no bikinis in Tibet." A teen boy tells a teen girl, "I've been stalking you since 8th grade. A teen boy asks another teen boy, "Do you like me?"


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VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A teenage boy is impaled by a statue's spear through the back (we hear a crunch and he slumps over motionless). A teenage boy robs several people: he holds his hand in the shape of a gun and pretends to shoot a man (the man is thrown to the ground and lies motionless), then throws three other men through the air and onto the ground where they lie motionless with spots of blood under their heads; the teen boy enters a convenience store where he throws the cashier into the wall, takes the money from the register, leaves when the cashier comes out of the store with a gun, the boy makes the gun fly out of the man's hand which causes an explosion and we see both the man and the boy in flames on the ground.
 A teenage boy pulls three teeth out of another teenage boy's mouth; the boy drops to his knees, blood pours out of his mouth and we then see the aggressor holding the bloody teeth and talking about what he did.
 Two flying boys argue high in the sky during a storm and one is struck by lightning (we see a funeral and we understand that he died). A teenage boy throws a helicopter through the air and it crashes; he throws a police officer through the air, he lifts a car high up on top of a tall building, pulls the driver out, and drops the car with a teen girl inside (she is taken out safely). A teenage boy causes a car to drive off a road, through a guardrail and overturn in a lake; two boys dive into the water to save the driver (we see the driver with a bloody head wound and blood on his mouth and we hear that he went to the hospital and presumably survived). A teenage boy flying in the sky hears a loud rumbling through a cloud and is struck by an oncoming airplane (the boy floats motionless and another teen lands on the ground with him unharmed; the teen that saved him has a bloody nose).
 A man punches his teenage son in the face and shoves him to the floor, the teenager pushes his father back against a wall, and then throws him on the floor where the man moans and rolls around in pain. A teenage boy grabs the wrist of his father and blows the windows out of the room they are standing in (we see a large plume of smoke billowing out the gaping hole in the building), the teen emerges through the smoke, holding his father and then drops him several stories (we hear him scream); another teen boy swoops him up and places him on the ground safely. A man hits his teenage son in the head and shoves him on the floor while yelling at him.
 Two teenage boys fight while floating and flying in the air, one boy throws the other back through the air, one boy blows the windows out of a building and glass shatters and showers down on the sidewalk below, a bus sails through the air, hits one floating teen boy and crashes into an office building (the teen boy falls to the ground below and we see that he has a bloody face).
 Police officers with guns drawn surround two teen boys, one boy lies motionless on the ground and the other holds his hands in the air, the other gets off the ground and the police shoot striking one boy (we see blood on his hand). A teenage boy throws many police officers and their vehicles that surround him back through the air, then yells and office building windows shatter and buildings collapse.
 A teenage boy grabs another teenage boy around the neck and holds him while another takes his camera; the first boy slaps the boy in the face a couple of times and the boy with the camera slides it across the floor while they call the boy names. Two teenage boys fight: they shove each other, one draws back his fist to strike the other, and the other stops him and they stop fighting. A man threatens a teen boy for filming his girlfriend dancing at a "rave," and he shoves him and throws beer on him and his camera.
 Two teenage boys walk through dark woods, they meet another teen boy and find a large hole in the ground, they lean over the hole and we hear a loud rumbling coming from inside; they climbs down into the hole and find a brightly lit object that emits an intense squeal that disrupts a camera from being able to film, one of the boys stands very near the object and touches it, we see his nose begin to bleed and he collapses to the ground (the scene ends). There are several scenes throughout the movie when three teenage boys have bloody noses (we see blood, sometimes a lot, streaming down their lips and they dab it with paper that becomes blood-soaked, or hold their hands over their faces). We see a woman in a wheelchair with oxygen tubes at her nose and she looks very ill (her eyes and lips are tinged purple). We see a woman in bed with oxygen tubes and monitors and we understand that she is very ill. We see a teenage boy in the hospital with burn wounds on his face and bandages on his head and arms.
 A teenage boy crushes a car by squeezing his hand into a fist. A teenage boy slams a fork into the hand of another teenage boy (we see that the boy's hand is not injured and that the fork's tines have been twisted out of shape). A teenage boy throws a baseball at another teen boy and it hits him in the face (we see his bruised cheek). A teenage boy throws a ball that strikes another teen boy in the face and then the side of the head (he is thrown to the ground). A teen boy throws a ball at another teen boy and the ball is stopped mid-air before striking the boy. A teenage boy makes a leaf blower turn on from a distance and moves it to blow under the skirts of a few girls, who scream when their skirts blow up and show their underwear (we see black panties and bare things). A teenage boy makes a car move across a parking lot and he and two other boys watch when the owner returns and is alarmed when she cannot find her car. A teenage boy makes a shopping cart move through a store while a woman chases it. A teenage boy makes another teenage boy lunge into a merchandise display and destroy it. A teenage boy makes a teddy bear float off a store shelf and move toward a young girl who screams and runs away.
 A man pounds on his teenage son's bedroom door and they argue through the door until the man walks away. Three teenage boys argue about their powers and how they should be used. Two teen boys argue and struggle over a camera. A man yells at his teenage son and blames him for taking him away from his wife when she was dying.
 We overhear a man on the telephone in a few scenes pleading for help with medical expenses for his sick wife and that she needs help, and that she is in pain and can't breathe. A woman coughs and screams in pain while her teenage son calls for his father to help her. A man tells his teenage son that his mother is dead. We hear that a woman, who had been very ill, died. A teenage boy talks about his father having been injured while working as a firefighter and not being able to work anymore. A teenage boy tells a teenage girl, in a joking manner, "I've been stalking you since 8th grade."
 A teenage boy crashes on the roof of a high-rise building and he vomits when he stands up (we hear a splatter; we do not see any goo). A teenage boy pretends to vomit while making fun of another teenage boy. A teenage boy burps and a teenage boy flatulates. A teen boy tells another teen boy, "Don't fart."

LANGUAGE 4 - 1 obscene hand gesture, 34 scatological terms, 10 anatomical terms, 7 mild obscenities, name-calling (weird, creepy, Ninja, stupid, idiot, hostile, buff, redneck, insane, selfish, loser), 3 religious profanities, 7 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - A teenage boy places a tin box on his lap and prepares to open it (we do not see what is inside the box, but it could be drugs or tobacco). A teenage boy says to his father, "You're drunk," three men carry paper bags with what is implied to be bottles of alcohol inside them, a teen boy tells another teen boy to "have a beer" at a party and he replies "I don't drink," a teen boy talks about his father drinking a lot, we see many people (many appear to be underage) at a "rave" dancing and it is implied that there is alcohol being served, a man sitting on a chair is shown holding a bottle of beer and the table next to him holds two empty bottles of beer, and we see people at a party holding cups that could contain alcohol but it is not identified.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Being unpopular, bullies, illness, death of a family member, friendship, Schopenhauer, Plato, validation, hubris, evolution, guilt, extraterrestrials.

MESSAGE - Fitting in is difficult.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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