A dark comedy movie that was directed by Nima Nourizadeh came out in 2012 that isn’t well known, but has a cult following amongst viewers. The movie, Project X, has many day to day situations that teenagers deal with. With big actors and actresses such as Miles Teller from Divergent, Jimmy Kimmel from the very famous nightly talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and main actor, Thomas Mann from many hit movies and shows we love does a good representation of a life of a teenager. On the flip side, many of the cast had never worked before. The filmmakers wanted to cast unknown actors so that viewers would find it easier to believe that it really was a teenage house party gone wrong.

Thomas (Thomas Mann), Costa (Olver Cooper) and JB (Jonathan Daniel Brown) are three anonymous high school seniors at their school in Pasadena, who are determined to finally make their mark before they graduate and increase their popularity. But how will they make themselves unforgettable in their high school history? With an epic party, of course!

While Thomas’s parents go out of town, him and his close two friends decide to throw a birthday party for Thomas’s 17th birthday. Thomas’s plan was to invite a few people because he didn’t want people wrecking his house. Costa went behind his back and posted Thomas’s address on many social media platforms which spread word of the party to lots of people. Over 2,000 people showed up to his party, which later on caused disturbances to his street and a riot of police came. 

My favorite part about the movie is that it’s based off of a real story. If you search up the name Corey Delany, 1,740,000 Google searches come up. He got his fame all because of a party. Back in 2008 in Melbourne, Australia, Corey, who was at the time only 16 years old, gained attention by throwing a party while his parents were out of town. Although that doesn’t sound unusual, after him and his two buddies decided to post Corey’s address on MySpace, the power of social media blew up the party big time. Over 500 strangers had arrived and increased to 2500 people, leading into a wild bash so out of control that riot police were eventually called to break up the party. Because of all of this, Corey became a giant media star and gained worldwide attention and fame.

Another of my favorites are the tunes played. The movie features 13 tracks which appeared throughout the film, with songs played by big artists such as Kid Cudi, D12, MGK, Nas and Pusha T.

Because this is based off a true story, when the party starts to happen and the police riots, too, the movie shows actual clips taken from the party in Melbourne from cop car cameras that were rolling and from phones of those at the party which I think is a cool touch to the movie to have real clips from the same party. The movie also doesn’t have a normal camera like many other movies. Project X was filmed in cinema verite style, only displaying the events of the film through a first-person view on the camera man who’s attending the party and observing, to create the effect of the audience attending the out of control party. 

For the filming, it took over 25 days to film on the Warner Ranch site in Burbank, California. Their original plan for filming was to film the movie in a normal neighborhood street, but because of certain events in the movie, they were unable to do so.

Another big plot line in the movie is near the end. Earlier in the movie, the three boys steal a gnome from T-Rick, an adult “friend” of Costa. They later on found drugs inside of it. T-Rick came to the party to reclaim his gnome as well as bringing with him a flamethrower with him. Once he found out he was unable to get his gnome back, he raged and lit the street on fire scaring neighbors and those at the party. Cops swarmed him and when T-Rick lit on fire, he ran into a trailer home which ended up blowing up with him inside.

To me, I don’t see how anyone could dislike the film. It’s the type of movie you watch where you want to experience what’s happening in the movie. It’s fun to watch with friends, family and have a good laugh. For anyone who likes watching exciting, unexpected movies, this is definitely a good choice. This movie and the party take on a life of its own. You don’t think it can get any worse, and then it gets even more out of control. At the end of the movie as the boys return to school, they are now the kings of the school because of the amazing party. They are also looking at doing a part 2, Project XX, but it still hasn’t happened yet. In my opinion, the first movie would be a hard one to top because the idea of the first movie was to show a normal teenage party going wrong, therefore it would be difficult to come up with a new storyline. I am now just waiting for the day my parents decide to take a vacation: PARTY TIME.