Project X

First Hit:  There wasn’t any acting because none was required.

This film is quite simply about a party that got away from itself.

The likelihood that high school kid could have a party like this in the neighborhood and house he was living in without the cops stopping it before it got the size it did is highly unlikely. The point, or so it seems in this film, is that a nerdy kid can make a lasting name for himself if he has a party of epic proportions.

Besides all this, the film was shot so that the audience was viewing it from an attendees camera point of view. This is the most interesting thing about this film.

The three main subjects Thomas (played by Thomas Mann), Costa (Oliver Cooper) and JB (played by Jonathan Daniel Brown) hired Dax (played by Dax Flame) to film the entire event. This was the inventive part of the film because it was as if none of the actors were acting, they just had a party and filmed it.

The love interest in the film was between Thomas and Kirby (played by Kirby Bliss Blanton) which, of course had its ups, downs and up.

Mann was good as the kid who wanted to be more “in” but had some, but not acted upon, consciousness about how to go about it. Cooper was the real driver of the party to fulfill his own whims and wishes. As this character he did a very good job. Was he likable? Not really. Brown was fine as the overweight kid who was always the third wheel and who comes out of his shell a bit during the party. Flame was on camera, I think, three times and was perfect as the cameraman. He had the right look and answers to questions. Blanton was beautifully engaging and good as the girl who was willing to take a friendship with Thomas a little farther. Matt Drake and Michael Bacall wrote the script and I’m not sure of the inspiration except maybe through other films like Animal House and The Hangover movies. Nima Nourizadeh directed this and I’m sure in some ways it must have been both easy and difficult.

Overall: Not an inspiring or interesting film and outside of high school boys, I’m hard pressed to know who the audience is.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

First Hit: Inventive filmmaking and acting made this a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

I like when people take some risks. Edgar Wright took the story written by Michael Bacall, Bryan Lee O’Malley and Wright, himself, and turned it into a visual reality based on the combination of comic book graphics and real life.

Like in the very old days of TV Batman, Wright’s team used graphics in expressing actions and words while adding interesting patterns of staging and lighting to this story. Telephone rings and you see “rrrriiiiinnnngggg” super imposed on a wall or table. People fly through the air like they do in amazing Asian martial arts fighting scenes. Edgy music adds a powerful punch to the background visuals and adds to the fun and enjoyment of this film.

And I just loved the names of the characters including: Pilgrim (played by Michael Cera) who is in a band named Sex Bob Ombs, had an old girlfriend name Kim Pine (played by Alison Pill) that broke his heart (he was pining for her), finds Knives Chau (played by Ellen Wong) who is a high school girl who likes Pilgrim and cuts to the chase, runs into Ramona Flowers (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) whom he falls in love with immediately and she changes hair color weekly, and discovers that to hang with Ramona he must defeat her seven evil ex’s.

The band members’ names are Stephen Stills (played by Mark Webber), Young Neil (played by Johnny Simmons) and Julie Powers on drums (played by Aubrey Plaza). When the band gets invited to play a "battle of the bands", Pilgrim also has to defeat the seven ex’s if he wants to keep his new girlfriend. In these scenes he is a martial arts master and as soon as he conquers an evil ex, a pinball score rises over the ex’s head and the person turns to coins (a payoff).

All through this, there are other amusing and funny moments as the story unfolds. There are lessons to learn for all the characters and the film is fun to watch. It has a level of freshness to it that felt like I was seeing something interesting on the screen that didn't measure its worth by how big the explosion had to be.

Cera is still playing the nerdy boy with some smarts which he occasionally uses. He plays this role often and someday he might want to try something totally different. Wong was fabulous as Knives. She captured the character extremely well. Winstead was also very strong as Ramona. Pill was good as the previous girlfriend who broke Pilgrim’s heart. Webber, Simmons and Plaza were great as band members who put up with and supported Pilgrim through the adventure. Kieran Culkin was fabulous as Pilgrim’s gay roommate. Wright directed with film with fun and an eye for color and scenes which spoke clearly.

Overall: Not sure I’d like to see a lot of films shot this way, but when one comes along that is this well crafted, it is definitely worth it.