Project X

If Project X proves anything it's that there still is a place for a raunchy, coming of age, immature movie in the movies today. Albeit it also proves how films like Road Trip and Old School got it right the first time out and there didn't really need to be any other follow-ups to these frat-brat classics. Project X -no matter how badly written, directed and acted it might be- can sometimes be a real guilty pleasure to watch. There isn't a boob missed, a shot of rum not taken or a hell bent teenager not seen. Hell you can't call this high art but it is nevertheless a diverting experience for the most part - a teenage parent's true worst nightmare on full display. A film like Project X is rarely something that should be accepted in theatres. It's rude, profane, ridiculously conceived and doesn't have much in the way of plot of character. You might feel dirty for semi-liking it once the credits start rolling but what the hell, you only live once.

Lately the trend for movies involving coming of age teenagers has been the use of hand-held camera. I'm thinking of last month's underrated Chronicle or even the teenage film lovers from last year's excitable Super 8. It's almost like it's a cool thing now for a movie to have hand-held. The protagonists in Project X are being filmed by a friend we never see, he just loves his camera and to film his buddies as they try to up their street cred in High School by throwing the biggest party imaginable. This isn't a party like any other and -for a moment there- you feel like you're right in the heat of the action. The party, which was supposed to be of decent size, goes viral all the way to craig's list in fact, and there ends up being close to 1500 people by the end of the night. A real big recipe for disaster. There are midgets, nudity, next door neighbor complaints, cops, sex, drugs and -well duh- skinny dipping. It all doesn't add up to much and once the party starts shutting down the movie goes MIA and loses its grip but then again did we expect much from this movie in the first place?

Tough subject matters finally inhabit the Summer Movie season

If the last planet of the apes has showed us anything, its that apes are super smart and you don't fuck with them. OK, that's not the best way to start this review but I found James Marsh's Project Nim an entertaining and rather sad documentary. The titular subject is a primate that was part of an experiment in the 70s done by scientific hippies setting him up from birth with a family and watching his every move, trying to find a correlation between his and human behaviour. Did it work? the report was inconclusive but what we see is some amazing footage of the primate taking part in conversations through sign language with the scientists and showing real feeling and humanistic behaviour in the process. BUT did he really mean his sign communication? or was it just a way for NIM to repeat gestures and signs that he's learned by hard through humans. It's an interesting question that doesn't fully get answered but Marsh -a talented filmmaker- gets us involved through recreated scenes, found footage and interviews on the people that NIM touched along the way. It's an experience like no other that makes you think about our relations with primates but also our connections and similarities to animals themselves. It's a cry for help and -despite minor missteps- Marsh does the subject proud.

Based on Kathryn Stockett's best selling novel about black maids in a bigot-riddled Mississippi of the 1940's, The Help is a botched job of an adaptation, a mess that never fully comes together even though the pieces are there. Those pieces have to do with the great cast starring with the maids themselves -indelibly played by Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer - and the white housewives - a never better Bryce Dallas Howard as the racist, a radiantly comic Jessica Chastain as the one with a heart of gold and Emma Stone as Skeeter, a wide eyed young author with good intentions. It's a film that had potential, a story told from the black housemaid's point of view, but darkness never lingers, there's too much sunlight and not enough hard truths. What this adaptation needed was a bit more black coffee and a little less cream .. and a competent director to give us better filled frames and a real sense of auteur-ship. The scenes are brightly lit for such a heavy subject matter. Director Tate Taylor was handpicked by the author to helm the film, problem is this was her first movie and the job is not competently done. It's a TV movie with a solid subject matter but without the necessary execution to complete it. High expectations towards the film's release will please the book's female fans but won't win awards or won't leave a lasting mark.