Three unpopular high schoolers attempt to boost their popularity status with the mother of all parties in this comedy, filmed handycam-style. But the raunchy party spirals wildly out of control when word spreads and massive crowd descends. Dreams are shattered, records are ruined and legends are born.
Coming from a background of music videos and commercials Nima Nourizadeh brings us his first feature film ‘Project X’, with a production budget of approximately $12 million the film makers set out through a national wide open casting call to find naturally talented people that had not already been exposed to professional acting and would be making their film debut. This process was mostly successful with some low-profile actors cast to round out the film.
The concept of ‘Project X’ is simple, a small group of senior high school kids plan to party their way from the shadows of obscurity into popularity through throwing the biggest most outrageous birthday party they possibly can. Wasting no time Nourizadeh takes the film through a quick set-up before moving along to the main event. Packed with juvenile, crass and outlandishly funny jokes the entertainment value here is going to depend upon the comedic sensibilities of the audience, however where these two things are in sync, there is some fun and entertainment to be found.
Despite being filmed with handheld shooting this isn’t a film where things become too convoluted to follow. The shooting style slides into the context of the film relatively easily and at times audiences are likely to forget they are watching through a handheld camera which unfortunately also happens to render the character behind the camera as pointless and inconsequential.
The three leads display both a natural and believable friendship on screen, serving as the foundation for the entire film this relationship carry’s through effectively till the credits roll. The one character relationship that is explored beyond the central friends is managed somewhat awkwardly, and feels added on to provide some additional resolution to the film that is ultimately unnecessary.
‘Project X’ is fully aware of where the sheer entertainment value lies and it makes the most of the outlandish party, as things progress in a hilarious fashion events quickly spiral out of control and the absolute entertainment starts to curb itself slightly with the realisation of just how crazy, out of hand and over the top things become. The film utilises extensive montage shots to depict much of the party events and while effective at first this technique grows a little thin with some drawn out montages edited throughout where the real interest lies.
With the depiction of drug use, alcohol abuse, stereotypical horny teenage boys and women treated as little else than the objects of their male counterparts desires of the flesh, it’s easy to find something to be offended by in ‘Project X’, however for everyone else there is a relentless bombardment of outlandish humour mixed with absolute lunacy packed into a tight, and extremely entertaining film.
I’m giving ‘Project X’ 3 out of 5 stars, it will be released in cinemas around Australian from Thursday 1 March 2012.