Thomas (Thomas Mann) is turning seventeen and coincidentally his parents celebrate their anniversary on exactly the same day and are off for the weekend to celebrate. This leaves their son, along with his two friends, the unflappable Costa (Oliver Cooper) and the overweight and diffident J.B. (Jonathan Daniel Brown) to begin organising the celebrations. In order to get the most out of the experience, the relative loners look to Dax (Dax Flame), a student who will film the whole event.
With their current popularity status at a low, Thomas insists on a simple and low-key party, half in fear of no-one turning up and the other half in the mindset that his parents are always keeping tabs via phone at every opportunity. Unfortunately for him, the over-excited and ardent Costa wants to take the party to the next level and proceeds with his plans to make the most epic party ever. Sending out text messages, emails and so forth, the party is all set and the boys soon find a prodigious number of students embarking upon the residence.
What ensues are the most unbelievable party antics you will ever witness on film. Everything from topless women, guys getting a dog high, a bouncy castle and even a seriously angry midget are on show in an incredibly mental series of events.
In introducing our three main characters, we are quickly accustomed to their altering personalities and without a doubt we can relate to at least one of them when it comes to looking back at ourselves at that age. Whether we relate to Thomas, Costa or J.B. we all know how this story is going to unfold, it's just how far it will escalate is the real draw. All three actors do a splendid job with their individual characters, especially as only Thomas Mann had any previous filming experience.
With his experience in the Adidas advertisements, Nourizadeh enjoys some brilliant almost montage moments of partying individuals and this plays out perfectly in a film where so much is going on that we want to know about. Focusing mainly on the action through different camera sources is an ingenius way of getting the audience to maintain their belief in the reality of these events and at no point does it feel uncomfortable presented in such a way.
Admittedly the film does falter on copious amounts of sexism but this is a film revolving around a high school party so this content is almost expected in these types of genre films on a regular basis in the film world. Couple that with a climax which results in an absolutely unnecessary showcase of utter carnage and the film is left slightly bitter tasting. Luckily though, its plus points by far outweigh these very minor negatives.
As a result, Project X is one of the most enjoyable films for some time, and, with its elements of real-life and a focus on attaching its characters to the audience it succeeds in providing plenty of 'wow' and reminiscent moments. Clearly Todd Phillips' involvement has had an impact with some Hangover similarities creeping in but this is very much different from what we have seen before. Think of Superbad meets handheld cameras multiplied by a thousand and Project X is the film you have. Brilliantly fun and completely mental, bring your friends and have a raucous time!
Film rating: 4 F's out of 5
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