Barely any plot, characterisation or clothes - but one hell of a party.
The cinematic equivalent of “go hard or go home”, Project X is being marketed like a blend of Superbad and The Hangover. The truth is that Project X is much more. Because this chaotic comedy doesn’t just let you watch the build-up to or the fall-out from a night out – it’s the real deal. It’s the wildest, craziest, most epic party you’ve ever crashed.
More an experience than a film, Nima Nourizadeh’s found-footage style debut is an immediate, outrageous and exhausting invitation to see the world through the eyes of a trio of high-school losers trying to elevate their social status by throwing the mother of all shindigs.
While Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper and Jonathan Daniel Brown take centre stage, the truth is that characters are of little importance to the film, and the women – or rather, jailbait girls – in Project X definitely get the short shrift. Only two of them are blessed with even the shadow of a stereotype, while the hundreds of left-over female extras are seemingly just there to provide more breasts than Lars Von Trier’s view of a Rorschach test.
But this is because everything – people included – are mere incidentals in Nourizadeh’s aim: to show the party. And it’s immense. What starts off as a quiet gathering soon descends into an uncontrollable vortex of drink, drugs, sex, fights, pranks, stunts, accidents, fires, riots, tasers and (of course) midgets, until it’s anarchy cranked up to 11, with a killer soundtrack.
Electrifying techno, thumping hip-hop and rousing rock anthems keep the energy up alongside the laughs.
Project X isn’t for the faint-hearted, old-aged, sensitively dispositioned, or even those looking for a great movie. But if you’re looking for a great party, a mood-lifter before a night out, a cult classic – you’ve arrived. Forget reliving your youth – loud, limitless, brash, hilarious, relentless and wild, Project X is about the youth you always wanted, but were too scared to have.