Project X is a American teen party movie which focuses its attention around three unpopular senior high school students; Thomas, Costa and JB.
Project X is a American teen party movie which
focuses its attention around three unpopular senior high school students;
Thomas, Costa and JB. Conveniently, Thomas’s parents
anniversary falls on their sons birthday and the parents have decided to go
away and share their weekend alone. Capitalising on this opportunity Costa and
JB decided to throw an epic party to celebrate their friends 17th
year on this earth and enlist mysterious loner Dax to film the whole thing on
camera, which is the viewpoint the audience gets. The only problem with them
throwing such a huge party is that they don’t have many friends. So they take
measures to the extreme and use every single piece of gadgetry, social media,
advertising and general word of mouth to spread the news of the party and
essentially become ‘popular’. Thomas is initially against the idea, but
eventually agrees to it as long as only a few people turn up and no one goes in
the house. His wishes don’t go to plan. Hundreds of people turn up at his house
and anarchy rules. What starts out as a pretty spectacular event, quickly
descends into a riot. The concept and its spectacle may sound enjoyable, but it
is anything but that.
Before we delve into its morally
repugnant soul lets look at what is slightly good about this film. The idea of
having a party this huge is dream for any teenager and for the most part it can
be a pretty enjoyable and fun. Also the fact that the majority of the cast were
given cameras to film the event gives the audience a constantly changing
viewpoint of what is going on amongst the chaos. Also the soundtrack featuring
artists like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Dr Dre, Animal Collective, Pusha T, The Kills,
Metallica, LCD Soundsystem, Nas, Drake, Yeasayer, Eminem, Jay-Z and Kanye
West to name but a few, is great and would make for the perfect party
playlist. Finally the two young security guards (played by Brady Hender and
Nick Nervies) are entertaining whenever on screen and are probably the
two best actors in the entire film.
For a supposed comedy film there are no
jokes in it whatsoever. That’s right NO JOKES. What gags they do attempt are so
insipidly unoriginal it’s just embarrassing. If you think of other American
teen films like American Pie, Dude Where’s My Car and Road Trip those
films are packed full with crass jokes and imagery that would inspire a chuckle
from even the coldest of hearts. Project X just repeats the same jokes
we’ve been subject to for the past 10 years; an angry dwarf, a dog high on
drugs, people so drunk they’ve passed out, irate neighbours, countless sexual
innuendos, an idiotic friend and a crazy drug dealer. Just bland, boring, cheap
thrills that leave you in complete and utter bemusement.
Secondly the portrayal of females in
this film is horrifically corrupt and sexist. You’d think at a party that a lot
of people will be getting up to a whole variety of crazy and stupid things that
will lower their morale fibre. Yet the only people you see doing anything
remotely detrimental are girls. Whether it involves removing all of your
clothes, urinating in public or having sex with literally anybody, only girls
are subjected to this humiliation. Girls are only presented as being symbols of
sex and flesh and have little if no personality. Only Kirby, who plays the main
love interest of Thomas, is given the tiniest ounce of a character who might do
something different other that show us her breasts, but even she is rendered to
stupidity towards the end. Men don’t get of too easy either and are mainly just
inane idiots who have a very narrow outlook on their existence.
Morally, Project X is completely
flawed. OK we all like to have a good party once in a while and every now and
again things can get out of hand. But you would hope that you could rely on
your friends to repair and clean up whatever mess is left behind. Project X
doesn’t agree with this, as long as you are popular once the dust has settled,
nothing else matters. It doesn’t matter if you completely ruin your parents’
house and personal property as long as you’ve had sex with as many people as
possible it’s fine. It doesn’t matter if you nearly kill your dog and burn down
the entire neighbourhood as long as every person at school knows your name
nothing else matters. It doesn’t matter if you lose out on an education and go
to prison as long as you gained notoriety, then everything is fine. On top of this horribly misguided view
of personal standards the glorification of alcohol consumption and drug abuse
should border upon the obscene publications act. Seriously, Cannibal
Holocaust and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre have more interesting
things to say about fun than Project X.
If this is the future of film then fear
for the future of directors like Terrence Malick and Werner Herzog.
If the youth of today believe that life should be lived like this, what does it
leave for the life-affirming directors? However if Project X proves anything,
it’s that these type of teen films have had their day. Project X is just one
unfunny cliché on top of the other. Nothing is interesting or exciting and
after a while it just becomes disturbing to watch. If another Project X is made (and their probably will) the
future of society is doomed. Best stock up on supplies now.