Project X (2012 film)
Project X is a 2012 American found footage teen comedy film directed by Nima Nourizadeh, written by Michael Bacall and Matt Drake and produced by Todd Phillips. The film follows three friends—Thomas (Thomas Mann), Costa (Oliver Cooper) and J.B. (Jonathan Daniel Brown)—who attempt to gain popularity by throwing a party, a plan which quickly escalates out of their control.
Project X
- Matt Drake
- Michael Bacall
Michael Bacall
- Thomas Mann
- Oliver Cooper
- Jonathan Daniel Brown
- Kirby Bliss Blanton
- Brady Hender
- Nick Nervies
- Alexis Knapp
Ken Seng
- March 2, 2012
88 minutes[1]
United States
English
$12 million[2]
$102.7 million[3]
The title Project X was initially a placeholder for a final title, but interest generated by the secretive title kept it in place. A nationwide open casting call was employed to find fresh faces. The majority of the cast were sourced from this casting call, but a few with prior acting credits, such as Mann, were accepted after multiple auditions. Filming took place on sets in Los Angeles over five weeks on a US$12 million budget. The film is presented as a home video from the perspective of an attendee using a camera to document the night's events.
Project X was released in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom on March 2, 2012, and grossed $102 million worldwide during its theatrical run. Criticism focused on the "loathsome" behavior of the lead characters and the disregard for the effects of drug use.[4] Other reviews considered it funny and thrilling, and equated it to a modern incarnation of National Lampoon's Animal House. Following release, incidents of large-scale parties referenced or blamed the film as an inspiration.
Plot[edit]
In Pasadena, high-school students Costa and J.B. plan to throw a party for their friend Thomas's 17th birthday, aiming to increase their popularity. Thomas's parents go away for the weekend, leaving him alone in the house, but warn him not to have too many people over and not to drive his father's Mercedes. Thomas is reluctant to have the party at his house, but Costa continues with his plan and hires A/V student Dax to chronicle the night's events. While Costa, J.B., and Dax advertise the party throughout the school, Thomas himself invites his best friend Kirby, who has a crush on him, and Alexis, a popular girl in their school whom Thomas has his own crush on. As the boys shop for party supplies, they have a chance encounter with actor Miles Teller and nervously invite him to the party, only to discover that the celebrity has already heard about it through the grapevine and plans to attend.
The trio then visits drug dealer T-Rick to buy marijuana, wherein Costa steals his lawn gnome to use as a party mascot. As they leave, T-Rick discovers the theft and chases after them, but they escape in Thomas's mini-van. As night falls, the party's start time passes, but no one turns up, and Thomas worries that the party will fail. Suddenly, partygoers arrive en masse, Miles Teller included. Thomas intends to limit the party to the backyard and pool house, with the house guarded by Everett and Tyler, two young security guards hired by Costa. However, more and more people begin arriving, and the party moves beyond their control and into the house. Thomas questions Costa on how he advertised the party, forcing him to confess that he put ads on Craigslist and on a local radio station, worried that no one would attend. Things escalate quickly as the party draws the ire of the neighbors and the police arrive, responding to a noise complaint. However, the partygoers hide and remain silent, convincing the officers that the party has already ended. The police leave and the party resumes.
Miles Teller smashes T-Rick's gnome, revealing that it contains large amounts of ecstasy tablets, which the partygoers quickly consume, including Thomas and his friends. Thomas kisses Kirby and reveals that he loves her. Alexis meanwhile flirts with Thomas throughout the night and eventually seduces him. Kirby walks in on the pair as they are about to have sex and leaves the party upset, as does Alexis, upset with Thomas running off and being secretly filmed. The noise and chaos of the party, including violence and mass property destruction, which has now spilled into the surrounding neighborhood, receive televised news coverage with helicopters flying over the house. A dwarf guest drives Thomas's dad's Mercedes into the pool after being forced into an oven by other partygoers earlier.
T-Rick arrives armed with a flamethrower, setting fire to trees, cars, and houses in the neighborhood in search of Costa and in an attempt to reclaim his gnome, forcing the guests to flee and the party to end. The police shoot his flamethrower pack, and it explodes. Thomas, Costa, J.B., and Dax flee with the other guests as Thomas's house (and the rest of the neighborhood) is left aflame, and the SWAT team moves in to retake the neighborhood. By morning, the boys return to their respective homes to discover what punishment awaits them. After his parents return, Thomas's father commends him for throwing such a large party because he thought he was a loser but reveals that Thomas is very much in deep trouble as his college fund will be used to cover the damages. At school, the boys are cheered by the students, and Thomas reconciles romantically with Kirby.
The epilogue reveals that T-Rick survived the explosion and is arrested for his actions; Thomas is convicted for disturbing the peace, contributing to the delinquency of minors, and inciting a riot, but is also voted most likely to succeed by his classmates. Costa and J.B. are acquitted, the former having a competent and expensive lawyer but awaits results of three separate paternity tests, and the latter's parents convincing the court that he is mentally incapable and unfit to stand trial but is forced to ride the short bus for the remainder of high school. Dax, meanwhile, is under investigation for the disappearance of his parents. In a television interview with Jillian Reynolds, Costa invites her to his next party, which he promises will be even better.
The cast also includes Miles Teller as himself, Martin Klebba as the dwarf guest, Rick Shapiro as drug dealer T-Rick, Rob Evors as Thomas's neighbor Rob, Caitlin Dulany and Peter Mackenzie as Thomas's parents,[12] Nichole Bloom as J.B.'s girl, and Jesse Marco as the party DJ.[13] Television hosts Jillian Reynolds and Jimmy Kimmel cameo as themselves.
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Producer Todd Phillips described the film as an experiment, after executive producer Alex Heineman provided a basic concept, with the production team sharing tales of memorable parties that they had either attended or heard about.[14] Writer Michael Bacall developed these stories into an outline scenario in one night with the goal of creating the "gnarliest high school party of all time". The remainder of the story was fleshed out in the following weeks.[14] Bacall and Drake were told to "go crazy" with the script, although Bacall confessed "I was a nerd in high school so I never did anything like what's in the movie". Bacall worked on the script generally at nights between simultaneously working on the scripts for 21 Jump Street and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.[15]
It has been widely speculated that the plot was loosely based around an infamous party held by 16-year-old Australian Corey Worthington in 2008—whose party was also a clandestine, out-of-control event with hundreds of gatecrashers and widespread chaos—although this was never confirmed or denied by any of the writers or producers.[16][17][18][19] Worthington became a viral sensation after being interviewed on A Current Affair by host Leila McKinnon to answer for the damage, destruction, and fear caused by the gatecrashers, and for rebuffing McKinnon's requests for him to remove his glasses. In the movie, the character of Costa is also interviewed on TV following the fictional party, and he has a very similar exchange to Worthington as well as being dressed in similar clothing.[20][21][22]
Nima Nourizadeh had previously only worked directing music videos and commercials, but he came to the producers' attention for his directing work on a series of party-themed Adidas commercials.[23] Nourizadeh explained to the producers how he would want to develop the script and how he would want the film to look and feel, and he was eventually brought from London to Los Angeles, for what he believed would be two weeks, but stretched to two years.[23] Phillips believed that Nourizadeh's interpretation of the film was compatible with his vision, influencing the decision to hire Nourizadeh in his feature film debut.[23][24]
Project X was not intended to be the title of the film, but it was kept to capitalize on interest generated by the rumored secrecy surrounding the project.[25] Adding to the secrecy, producers decided to not send full scripts to any prospective cast member, instead providing only watermarked individual pages.[24]
Casting[edit]
To create the impression that the events of Project X had actually happened, the producers decided against casting known faces and instead find completely new actors.[26][24] Phillips stated that the goal of the open call was to cast "unknown actors" and "real people of all ethnicities," who would not normally be given a chance to star in a film.[24] Phillips and producer Joel Silver decided to create a nationwide open casting call, allowing any United States resident over the age of 18 to audition for Project X through a specially created website. Actors were required to provide videos of themselves telling embarrassing or funny stories, or dancing.[25] However, traditional casting was still employed to allow actors with little professional acting credits to audition.[25][27] The process allowed traits of the selected actors to be incorporated into their characters, including in several cases, their respective characters taking the actors' names.[26] In casting the three leads, the production avoided solo casting and instead had a group of three actors auditioning together, switching out and adding different actors to see which group worked best together.[8]
The casting of low-profile actors aided in keeping the production budget low by avoiding the larger salaries attached to stars.[24] To prepare for the role and create a believable friendship between the leads, Brown, Cooper, and Mann were sent to Disneyland together and spent a weekend in a cabin at Big Bear City, California.[5][8]
Project X (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
During its box office run, the film grossed $54.7 million in North America and $48 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $102.7 million, against a budget of $12 million.[3]
The film opened to $1.2 million in midnight takings from 1,003 theaters in the United States and Canada.[43][44] Throughout its opening day, the film's release was expanded to 3,055 theaters,[44] where it grossed a total of $8.2 million including midnight takings.[45] The end of the opening weekend saw the film take a total of $21 million—an average of $6,891 per theater[3]—finishing as the number-two-grossing film of the weekend behind the animated family film The Lorax ($70.2 million),[46] and exceeding expectations that it would finish with a gross in the mid- to high teens.[47] Project X was highly popular with males and youth; 58 percent of the opening-weekend audience for the film was male, and 67 percent of the audience was under the age of 25.[48]
Outside of North America, the film had its most successful opening weekends in France ($3.8 million), Australia ($1.3 million), and Germany ($1.2 million). These countries also represented its largest total gross takings, with $15 million from France, $4.4 million from Australia, and $4.3 million from Germany.[49]
Critical response[edit]
Critical reviews for the film have been mixed to negative. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 29% based on 143 reviews, with an average rating of 4.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Unoriginal, unfunny, and all-around unattractive, Project X mines the depths of the teen movie and found-footage genres for 87 minutes of predictably mean-spirited debauchery."[50] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[51] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, with young males rating it the highest (A),[52] and males in general rating the film higher (B+) than females (C+).[52]
Criticism against the film focused on the perceived misogynistic and mean-spirited behavior of the characters, and disregard for the effects of drugs.[4] Empire's Chris Hewitt gave the film one star out of five, and referred to the central characters portrayed by Mann, Cooper, and Brown, as "spectacularly unlikable". Hewitt labeled the characters "unrepentant, nihilistic, vile, venal, animalistic, avaricious, charmless, entitled, sub-Kardashian, stunningly irresponsible brats". Hewitt ended his review by stating that the film was "possibly the worst film of the last 20 years. It's certainly the worst comedy of the last 20 years".[53] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter was similarly critical, calling it "grimly depressing, glumly unfunny teensploitation", but admitted that it would "enthrall a portion of the high school/college age demographic it depicts, just as it alternately outrages, confounds and disgusts other, presumably older audiences."[54] USA Today's Claudia Puig found the film treated female characters poorly, labeling it a "heinous, misogynistic movie filled with faceless crowds and nary a character who resembles an actual human being",[55] a sentiment echoed by Melissa Anderson of The Village Voice who felt the film promoted "skull-numbing hedonism without consequences", and "second-nature misogyny", and that the only purpose of the male characters is to "'get high, fuck bitches.'"[56]
Robbie Collin of The Telegraph called the film "flamboyantly loathsome on every imaginable level" and was critical of the three lead characters, saying "unlike Superbad's leads, these three are poisonously unpleasant, and the supposedly comedic banter between them comes off as bullying."[4] The Los Angeles Times's Robert Abele called the main trio "numbingly predictable" and the film itself "unoriginal", stating the film "bears a cravenly piggish attitude toward rewarding socially unacceptable behavior that feels unseemly rather than exciting".[57]
Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times said that the funny script and skilled editing potentially made it the "Animal House of the iPhone generation".[58] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly praised the film for updating the clichés of similarly themed films from the 1970s to the 1980s like Animal House and Risky Business "so that they look just dangerous enough to make nostalgia feel naughty", but stated that the film does not offer anything more outrageous than real parties, despite implying "that it's breaking down bold new barriers of misbehavior".[59] Gleiberman accused negative reviews of "fulfilling the role of all those uptight parents in '50s news reports about the dangers of rock & roll", by applying moral judgments to the events of the film.[60] Time Out's Joshua Rothkopf gave the film four stars out of five, calling it "brainless", but feeling that the sheer anarchy of the film's events were "thrilling".[61] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised the film as "gut-bustingly funny" that appealed to a base youth element to become "shitfaced and run amok", and said that it puts its own spin on Animal House. Travers gave particular mention to Mann as "excellent"; however, he also stated that Nourizadeh's filmmaking was a "disaster".[62]
Several reviewers were particularly critical towards Cooper and his character. Hewitt called him "the most annoying movie character since Jar Jar Binks",[53] while others similarly described him as "singularly loathsome, venal and without humor",[54] "supremely annoying",[55] "that dick in a sweater-vest"[56] and a "misogynistic" imitation of Jonah Hill "minus the timing, sad sack appeal and motormouth grace".[57] Conversely, Genzlinger praised Cooper for bringing a "mischievous likability" to Costa that "anchors" the events.[58]
In a 2021 essay for Metrograph, film critic and screenwriter Nick Pinkerton lauded Project X, writing: "The buzzkill, pursed-lipped Pharisees of a corrupt critical commentariat tried to kill it once, as they do anything that threatens their sense of authority, but it’s still raging after the cops have cleared out." Pinkerton argues that the film is better than contemporary Best Picture winners like The Artist and Argo: "This scurrilous little movie has outlived its lauded contemporaries like Argo and The Artist, which were never really alive in the first place."[63]
Accolades[edit]
Cooper was nominated for two 2012 MTV Movie Awards for Best Comedic Performance and Best On-Screen Dirtbag, and the film received a nomination for Best Music for the Steve Aoki remix of the Kid Cudi song Pursuit of Happiness.[64] Project X was listed as the number 1 most pirated film of 2012 on BitTorrent with approximately 8.7 million downloads.[65]
Sequel[edit]
On March 6, 2012, four days after its release, Warner Bros. announced a sequel, with Bacall returning to write a script.[82] On May 19, 2015, the studio officially announced that the sequel would be titled Project XX and was initially scheduled for release on August 19, 2016.[83] In December 2021, Jonathan Daniel Brown had commented on Instagram the sequel will "never happen".[84]
On March 12, 2023, Dax Flame released a concept trailer for Project X 2 featuring Jonathan Daniel Brown on his YouTube channel daxflame. At the end of the trailer he ask his fans to share the video in the hopes of getting Warner Bros. attention so they might pick up the project again.[85]
On February 17, 2024, a sequel was officially announced by movie insider Jeff Sneider on his Twitter account "@TheInSneider".
"They’re gonna do another one of these with female leads and call it PROJECT XX. Subscribe to my newsletter, party people…"
On February 24, 2024, a teaser trailer was uploaded to a YouTube channel named "ProjectxDose," starring lead actors Oliver Cooper, Thomas Mann, and Jonathan Daniel Brown (voice), alongside Miles Teller and Dax Flame.
In the video, Cooper contacts the actors and producers of the first movie attempting to convince them to star in, and fund, the sequel he will be directing. Near the end of the video, he convinces Mann to join him, saying that Teller agreed to recreate the party at his house.
An official release date was not listed in the video.
[86]