Josh Trank

This movie focuses on three teens: Andrew, Matt, and Steve. Andrew is a loner who's constantly bullied by his peers and abused by his alcoholic father. His beloved mother is slowly and painfully dying of cancer. His way of dealing with all of this is to make a video diary chronicling his life and the things going on around him, which is the source of most of the movie's "found footage."

Matt is Andrew's cousin and the closest thing he has to a friend. Matt takes Andrew to a party in an effort to help him mingle - it goes badly, but Matt and Steve (a popular and charismatic student) have Andrew come with them to film their exploration of a large hole they found in the woods. They discover a glowing crystalline object and, several weeks later, the three teens film themselves displaying amazing new telekinetic abilities.

For a brief while, Matt and Steve help Andrew use his new abilities to make friends and become more popular. Unfortunately, things don't turn out quite the way Andrew hoped, and his behavior rapidly becomes more erratic and violent. Only Steve and Matt have any hope of keeping Andrew from harming others.

If you're looking for a sad and realistic-feeling take on how three teens might react to suddenly getting superpowers, this movie is for you. I wasn't expecting it to be such a gut punch - while, overall, I thought it was good, it's not the kind of movie I'll ever want to watch again.

I don't know whether it was intended to be a statement about toxic masculinity, but it felt like one to me. All three of the boys had fun with their new powers when they first discovered them, but for Andrew they also provided a door to something better. For a short time, he could become the kind of guy who had friends like Matt and was popular like Steve. Unfortunately, when everything fell apart, he defaulted to his alcoholic father's violence, harming everyone around him, including himself.

Things went from bad, to worse, to just plain bleak - instead of music, the closing credits were simply accompanied by background noise. By that point, anything else might have felt like too much.

I thought this was definitely worth watching once, but, again, I don't think I'll ever want to rewatch it. I suppose you could call it a superhero origin story (although I doubt there will ever be a sequel), but it's more sad and draining than triumphant.

Extras:

Pre-viz materials, and camera test.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)… (more)