FILM REVIEW: Project X (2012)

Director: Nima Nourizadeh
Starring: Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper, Jonathan Daniel Brown and Kirby Bliss Blanton
Running Time: 88 minutes
Genre: Teen comedy

Early previews for Project X labelled it as the next Hangover/Superbad crossover hit. They were wrong, so very wrong. Unfortunately, unlike the two aforementioned titles, Project X comes off as a second rate crude 'comedy' that relies on the lead trio of abusing each other verbally continuously and over-reliance on "OMG we're the cool kids for tonight" type nonsense rather than genuine character progression or development. The lack of those themes in comedy have often worked a joy in the past, but for it to work, the characters need to be likeable and sympathetic to a certain degree and even more importantly, it has to be funny. The film has none of those going for it and is a cluttered mess of direly unfunny gags and swearwords.

To celebrate Thomas's (Thomas Mann) birthday, he along with his friends Costa (Oliver Cooper) and J.B. (Jonathan Daniel Brown) organize the house party to end all house parties. As the crowd grows too big and out of control, the shit hits the fan. That's it, that's the story here. How the writers thought they could possibly get 90 minutes worth of decent entertainment from that is beyond me, even if the script had at least a few laughs and the tiniest bit of charm. It fails spectacularly. The characters are generally generic cardboard stereotypes of the teen comedy genre; the geek, the fat one, the underachiever, the hottest girl in school, the John Cusack cool kid who is nice to the dweebs. The leads even lack the most basic charm or likeability as the birthday boy Thomas, betrays a girl he may be in love with to try and "get with" the school's most popular girl and woop-di-woop, gets caught in the process, but takes some drugs to get over it.  The ecstasy use depicted in the film infuriated me no end and the message that this film sends out to the no doubt legion of underage people that will be going crazy for this film. Taking ecstasy to assist in having a good party time and oh, well "I'll be fucked up tomorrow" after as the only side effect is irresponsible, even in the context of a fictional film is unforgivable (especially in a film marketed at kids). Seeing this blatant mixing of drugs and alcohol equating to fun times is irresponsible film-making and is exploitive and damaging. It's a party film, fine, but glorifying that kind of drug use on screen without repercussions (in fact, it's celebrated in the film with slo-mo scenes of underage kids taking tablets and having a 'good time'). All this would not have mattered if they learned a lesson of some sort or even if it was a genuinely funny film, but it really wasn't.

Project X misses the mark on all the promise of being the next Superbad. Mean, unfunny and basically a 90 minute advert for the latest party dance songs, this film is really poor. For those who enjoy seeing teen geeks fantasies about getting with skimpily dressed teen girls who are "out of their league", this film isn't even for you. It's that bad. Worst film so far this year.

13