Film Review: Project X

It has often been said that women get a raw deal in movies. The same can be said of teenage boys. Project X does nothing to rectify this, although the film does amuse in places.

On his seventeenth birthday, high school student Thomas is encouraged by his friends Costa and JB to throw a party. The trio are not the most popular students at school, and Costa thinks a big party will put them on the map. Thomas and his friends are filmed by a fellow colleague as the party gets started…

With barely a semblance of a plot, Nima Nourizadeh’s Project X is all about crass humour and bad behaviour. From the outset, this will turn off numerous viewers. Project X is likely to appeal to and satisfy a particular demographic. The 18 certificate may hinder the film’s chances of box office success as many viewers likely to be attracted by it will be under this age. Filmmakers may have been wiser to make a few cuts in order to get the 15 rating.

Project X is funny, but this humour tends to be rather base and crass. The film will often go for cheap jokes instead of relying on more intelligent writing. The humour works for the type of film that it is, although not sufficiently to sustain the entire production. Certain slurs and language is used over and over again. This is more offensive for the fact that it is a dull steroetype rather than for the actual terms used.

The film is noticeably misogynistic in its depiction of characters. Women are little more than eye candy, and are treated accordingly by the film’s main protagonists. The three main characters do not come off well because of this, and it is a rather unoriginal depiction of teenage boys.

Many teen films will feature parties that will either make viewers envious, or nostalgic for their youth. Project X bucks the trend by offering a party that is most undesirable. There is a conscious display of sweating, dilated pupils and mess; a far cry from more glamorous images of the American high school party. Perhaps this was the aim of Nourizadeh and producer Todd Phillips.

The film does boast a great soundtrack however. Some of the sequences function like a music video with the use of montage. Performances are also fine, with Oliver Cooper excelling as the stereotypical antagonistic pal Costa. If crass humour and debauched teens is your thing, than Project X is the film for you.