Project Almanac

This review may contain spoilers!

It's basically Chronicle with time travel; actually it's exactly like Chronicle except with time travel. I would give Project Almanac a 5.5/10.

The shooting style for Project Almanac was very well done, the shots were inventive and maintained a strong home video feel to the film. I was also very impressed with the visual effects within the film, the time machine and the effects that happened around it were quite simple but looked incredible. A lot has to be said for the pacing of the film as well, it moved quick and had some great comedy as well as character chemistry. The music within this film was brilliant; both within the concert scene and the opening scene there was some brilliant lyrical pieces.

Sofia Black-D'Elia, who played Jessie Pierce, was a great character; she circumvented being confined to just a love interest or popular girl to becoming a fun and engaging character. Allen Evangelista, who played Adam Le, was a great comedic supporting role; his performance as Weston's best friend was a strong emotional arc.

Yet it was Sam Lerner, who played Quinn Goldberg, that really owned this film. His hilarious and carefree persona was probably the most accurate depiction of a teenager who discovers time travel. I think the scene where he buys his car as well as the scene where he aces his chemistry test are some of the peaks of the film.

This is ultimately a film that strays into stereotype and the plot itself isn't wildly different from the other famous found footage film, Chronicle. Beyond that the style of found footage always winds up feeling very forced and I certainly wasn't incredibly impressed with how the style of the film progressed. the end shot was a cheap choice.

Jonny Weston, who played David Raskin, wasn't a very good lead; his performance was quite confused and it didn't seem like he knew quite how to portray his character. Virginia Gardner, who played Christina Gardner, got put in a corner in that she was ultimately written to be the 'hot girl character' as well as the best friend's love interest, which was disappointing as she had some good scenes outside of that.