Project X hits the cinemas this weekend, Teri investigates whether this is the next generation of teen classics…
In my opinion, Superbad is one of the best mainstream comedies of the last ten years. What Project X manages to do is take everything that’s great about Superbad, dumb it down, and turn it into something that’s far more unsettling and – despite its use of handheld camerawork to create a more realistic setting – far less representative of what young people are really like.
There’s an episode of the Adam and Joe show on 6music from a few years ago where Joe is describing an opening sequence to the first episode of the third series of Skins (the series where it all went downhill, pretty much) – taking the mick out of the wretched cliches on display (as Adam described it, something along the lines of ‘digital-skateboard-turd-spliff-text-trilby-swearing-indierock-community-police-ponce-pub-lady’. “This is everything that teenagers are into, aren’t they? Right, teenagers?” Joe asks with a knowing little smirk in his voice.
I badly wanted Project X, a film with no famous faces and marketed as home footage movie of a high school party gone horrifically and unsettlingly wrong, to be the antithesis of this. It was not. It was everything I was dreading it to be. The vomit-covered brainchild of a Vice workie’s wet dream falsely advertised as a found footage movie with some pretty significant (and distracting) special effects and a booming, distinctly non-homemade movie soundtrack that seemed to juxtapose with the gimmick the film has been built on.
My disappointment didn’t really end with the fact that it was poorly executed and mind numbingly glossy-hip – it was patronizing, sexist and misogynistic, homophobic, racist, ageist, and it sits on a moral that (and this will become clearer if you choose to see it) reads: ‘parties and being liked by people who treat you like shit = good; your close friends, responsibility, self-respect and education = bad’. I am absolutely no woolly feminist nor am I member of the PC brigade, but this film was just insanely offensive even by my standards. “Where did those girls come from, porno school?” my friend mused as we discussed the picture on our way out. Indeed – there isn’t a girl in sight who looks like any secondary school pupil I’ve ever seen. The boys (despite one of them looking about forty years old – the bloke with the douchey goblet, I’m squinting at you), are slightly more believable but less than charming. There’s absolutely nothing likeable about these three snotty little geeks who want nothing more than to fit in with a crowd who have bullied them for years.
To be fair I laughed quite loudly during some of the first few scenes, but I blame the sugary free wine and slightly nervous high expectations I had knowing absolutely zilch about this Todd Philips produced “comedy”. I can see it appealing to some younger viewers but I would hope most of them would never let a film like this talk down to them in such an appalling and quite frankly tragic way. The party descended into chaos and just like that, this film is a total shitstorm mess.
PROJECT X IS RELEASED NATIONALLY IN THE UK ON MARCH 2ND
About The Author – Teri Williams
Teri is a former film student from Edinburgh and currently works in book publishing in London. She is a fan of bad taste films, horror, fantasy, science fiction and vintage teen comedy and has been described by her friends as a “proper nerd” and a human imdb. She can be found speaking nonsense under the twitter name @msenidcoleslaw and scribbling similar nonsense on her blog Enid’s Revenge
Have you seen this film? Is it your cup of tea? Comment below…
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01 Mar 2012, 2:47 pm
This does sound like a horrible film, Teri. I shall be avoiding it like the plague!
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05 Mar 2012, 11:58 am
God, you should. You’d hate it.
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01 Mar 2012, 4:02 pm
The trailer made it out to be an alright kind of film. Well in my eyes. Though, I’ve not read one single positive review for it. Not a single one.
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05 Mar 2012, 11:59 am
I’m really not surprised that it’s been universally panned, to be quite honest. The trailer shows pretty much everything that happens – ie, a whole lot of nothing.
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02 Mar 2012, 5:52 am
Yea, this looks nothing short of atrocious from the previews. I will stay well clear of this as they are obviously trying to capitalize on the success of The Hangover and Superbad.
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05 Mar 2012, 12:01 pm
Which is a shame, really, on the reputation of those films – I am in no way a fan of The Hangover but Superbad is just awesome.
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02 Mar 2012, 6:01 pm
Hi, Teri and company:
Don’t hold back. Tell us how you really feel!
The sad thing is that no matter how awesome the party is. The geeks hosting this conspicuously consumptive, sophomoric freak show will still get beaten up and bullied in school the next day.
Excellent review!
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05 Mar 2012, 12:03 pm
Thanks Jack! I can’t remember the last time a film made me want to write a review like this. I just found it deeply, deeply unsettling and in need of a good telling off.
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02 Mar 2012, 10:15 pm
This turns out to only be a conventional party movie that’s nowhere near as funny as it wants to be.
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05 Mar 2012, 12:03 pm
Truth!
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05 Mar 2012, 9:16 am
Just seeing the horrendous trailer is enough for me. I can’t imagine that I’ll ever watch this movie. Not even to get the chance to rage about it. Raging once in a while is fun but there are limits of what I’m ready to expose myself to in the name of blogging.
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05 Mar 2012, 12:05 pm
I went into it not really knowing much about it at all, so was taken completely by surprise. On the one hand I’m glad I’ve seen it so I was able to warn people, but on the other I almost felt guilty for sitting through it and laughing through the initial scenes before everything just went horribly wrong.
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05 Mar 2012, 12:18 pm
Your rating makes me feel vindicated for being repulsed at even the idea of seeing this film. What a waste of time and money. Change the record Hollywood!
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05 Mar 2012, 4:43 pm
I was so hoping for this one to be good. Oh well…
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06 Mar 2012, 8:31 pm
I would rather pick the detritus from underneath my fingernails and eat in on toast than sit through this drivel. Your review is as close as I want to get, and I’ve no doubt it’s more enjoyable than the actual movie.
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07 Mar 2012, 7:47 am
This sounds awful. I’ve seen the trailer and watched a few clips and thought it really does not appeal. Thanks for the warning!
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