Certainly, the movie commits to its premise and keeps its promise—this is the wildest teen party you’ve ever seen. Parents might (though they probably won’t) take comfort that, in the context of the story, charges will be filed, damages will be paid, and characters’ lives, if not outright ruined, will be harshly diverted. In any case, one can’t escape the fact that “Project X” is about how good it is to be very, very bad.
This project has been engineered around a sturdy but well-worn chassis. Thomas (Thomas Mann) is the Good Kid celebrating a momentous birthday while his parents are away for the weekend. He’s joined by Costa (Oliver Cooper), the Hypersexual Blowhard, PJ (Jonathan Daniel Brown), the Affable Schlub, and Kirby (Kirby Bliss Blanton), the Best Friend/Girl Next Door.The entire story is presented as “actual video” of the day’s events, recorded mostly by Dax (Dax Flame), the A/V Geek and Quiet Loner. For the sake of his friend and a chance at legend status, Costa—a tornado of raging hormones, pseudo-“street” bravado, and wicked resourcefulness—orchestrates in less than a day what will become the party/orgy/riot of the decade. To say that things get out of hand at this soirée is a gross understatement. Eventually, Thomas and his friends lose control of the guest list, the property, and any sense of restraint or, for that matter, consequences.
Despite stereotypical nuts and bolts, the usual teen-angst issues barely apply here. Thomas is uncool, certainly—even his dad (Peter Mackenzie) privately worries that his son is a “loser”—but he hardly seems tortured by it. He’s not a basket case in the way of Cameron from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, wound tight and aching for release. While he hasn’t gotten it together to bring his friendship with Kirby to the next level, they both know it’s just a matter of time. Most importantly, Thomas is not some Teen at a Crossroads taking a stand against adult and peer authority like the main characters in “Dazed and Confused” (one of the most delicate and truthful depictions of the fight for the right to party ever made). Costa conjures this gathering, and Thomas is swept up in it, because it’s a great way to get cheered walking to your locker the following Monday.
So “Project X” has nothing new to tell about teens. It does have a lot to tell and show regarding how teens party (or, more accurately, regarding parents’ recurring stress nightmares regarding how teens party). Punctuated by flashbulb-lit, slow-mo, bump-and-grind montages, a cavalcade of human excess and depravity unfolds: [deep breath] profanity, casual homophobic and racial denigration, and misogynistic objectification; sexual innuendo and whatever-the-opposite-of-innuendo-is, nude breasts and rears, barely covered sexual arousal, and casual sexual activity; public nuisance, destruction of property, failure to follow the instructions of a law enforcement office, assault of a minor, assault by a minor, animal abuse, little person abuse… all of it fuelled by barrels of alcohol, bushels of marijuana, and bowlfuls of party drugs. [another deep breath]
After the success of his naughty, well-executed comedy “The Hangover” and its redundant sequel, producer Todd Phillips seems desperate to up the ante again. He, director Nima Nourizadeh, and writers Matt Drake and Michael Bacall hit the jackpot: “Project X” makes “The Hangover” look like “Beach Blanket Bingo”. But the fact that many of the guests/perpetrators are underage strains the audience’s willing suspension of moral queasiness. At the screening I attended, the full house laughed heartily at the escalating excess, but as conditions deteriorated they got noticeably quieter at key moments, like when a crazed drug dealer takes a flamethrower to a suburban block overrun by vomiting teens. Even the most avid reveler must concede that when the house burns down, it’s time to go home.
