This title … is it a dossier or a command? Is it “Project Power” as in a coup by your local utility to make electricity usage more efficient or is it the kind of advice a despot tells his eldest son? I suppose it works either way, which is how you know you’ve got a good title … well, that and you can remember it. Hmmm, this title ain’t so memorable. Meh. Half of one, six dozen of the other. ;)
Combining X-Men and the War on Drugs, Project Power does something few movies have been able to do: give super-human powers to minorities. As the film is largely about minorities acquiring super powers, the application -of course- is limited, illegal, and potentially fatal. Geez, between Project Power and Chadwick Boseman, RIP, minority supers can’t catch a break, huh?
New Orleans is the setting for an outbreak of “Power,” a pill that grants its consumer five minutes of super abilities… or it could just make you explode. The pills are both illegal and coveted, leading to two fantastic early film chases – one in which freelance cop Frank (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) runs down a chameleon-like bank robber and another in which Art (Jamie Foxx) goes looking for the source of “Power” and ends up fleeing from a self-immolating Machine Gun Kelly. Yes, invisibility and human torch are two things the pills can do – it’s different for every person. It’s fitting that the film takes place in the deep South; these pills are like a box of chocolates; you never know what you gonna get.
It takes a while for the film to tell us whether Jamie Foxx is a good guy or a bad guy. He seems to be behaving like a rogue narc, tracking the drug source while paying very little attention to illegal behavior.
What’s a little B&E and trunk kidnapping between friends, anyway? And yet, he’s clearly only confronting truly bad men, the villains at the top of the drug chain. When Frank is told explicitly that Art is his target, this confuses this issue and sets us up for a Foxx—Levitt showdown. Ambiguities were more of a 60s and 70s thing, Hollywood-wise. I quite liked not knowing; it gave us a chance to evaluate either man completely by his mixed breadth of actions rather than by how those around him behaved.
Project Power never lacks for surprises because we’re never given a full list of what the possible powers are … and some are really quite special – Machine Gun Kelly turning into a human fireball was pretty awesome. Because powers are more-or-less unique, it’s hard to tell exactly how powerful one character might be. Also, I’m a bigger fan of power limitations than powers themselves. Anybody can write about what Superman ought to do; tell me what Superman ought to do if he only gets to be Superman for five minutes a year – and using his powers is illegal. That, to me, makes a far more compelling read.
Special pills is what users are buying
To unlock the super dormant lying
Would I take this dope?
Only if there’s hope
Sardonic happens without me even trying
Rated R, 113 Minutes
Director: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman
Writer: Mattson Tomlin
Genre: Want to be an X-Man, or just act like one?
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Junkies
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: “Just say ‘NO’ “
