The premise for the 2001 documentary series "Project Greenlight" was novel and fascinating. Prior to production, the showrunners (including longtime friends and frequent collaborators Matt Damon and Ben Affleck) solicited scripts from untested filmmakers and ambitious film students, holding a contest as to which one was the best and could be the most easily produced. Damon and Affleck received over 7,000 scripts before eventually winnowing them down to one, titled "Stolen Summer," written by Pete
Jones. Jones then swiftly and, with the producers' aid, made "Stolen Summer" into a feature film. "Project Greenlight," over the course of its 12 episodes, detailed the making of "Stolen Summer" from the script selection to the final product. Jones' movie was produced for only $1.8 million, although it was not a box office success.
"Project Greenlight," which aired on HBO, was meant to encourage independent voices in cinema and continue the 1990s trend of low-budget, indie films regularly catching nationwide attention. It lasted for four seasons and produced four notable movies. Affleck and Damon's names, in being attached to these small projects, were intended to boost their profile.
The second season of "Project Greenlight" produced Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin's "The Battle of Shaker Heights," while its third season chronicle the making of "Feast," a crass, goopy monster movie. In all three cases, the films were modestly budgeted but still made very little money at the box office. Additionally, none of them received positive reviews. It seems even Affleck and Damon's presence couldn't force hits into being. Indie films, we learned, had to be organic discoveries.
The fourth season of "Project Greenlight," which didn't air until 2015, covered the making of Jason Mann's film "The Leisure Class," a comedy starring Bruce Davison, and it was the most disastrous effort of them all. Made for $3 million, the movie wasn't released in theaters and only served as the "Greelight" season finale. Critics hated it. As of this writing, "The Leisure Class" has an unenviable 0% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on nine reviews).
Read more: 10 Completed Movies That Were Never Released
The Problems With The Leisure Class
The fourth season of "Project Greenlight," it should be noted, had something of a shakeup. The winner of the season's screenplay contest was a script called "Not Another Pretty Woman" (written by Ricky Blitt) and the selected director was to be filmmaker Jason Mann. While starting production on "Woman," though, Mann brought his script, "The Leisure Class" to Damon's attention, hoping to make that one instead. Mann pushed and negotiated, and Damon was finally worn down, with production pivoting to the movie he wanted to make. It seems that insistence and a little bit of arrogance is required to survive in Hollywood.
The general consensus is that "The Leisure Class" is only an interesting movie if you have the context of its "Project Greenlight" season first. The movie itself, critics seem to agree, is dull and unappealing and doesn't stand on its own. No one would be interested in "The Leisure Class" if they hadn't already seen the struggles that the filmmakers underwent to get it made. Ultimately, "The Leisure Class" and "Project Greenlight" need to be consumed as a whole unit, not just vaguely connected companion pieces.
The film itself is about Charles (Ed Weeks), a character who aims to marry his girlfriend Fiona (Bridget Regan), the daughter of a senator. On the night before the wedding, however, Charles' brother Leonard (Tom Bell) arrives to potentially spoil the entire day. It's then revealed that Charles is actually William, a con man who is planning on marrying his bride and then absconding with her money. Bruce Davis and Brenda Strong also co-star as the father and mother of the bride, in turn, and the pair were clearly the production's big "gets."
What The Reviews Of The Leisure Class Said
It should be noted that the making of "The Leisure Class" came with a wisp of controversy. Damon produced the movie with Effie Brown, and she was concerned that the film -- and "Project Greenlight" in general -- had been all about the interests and careers of white people. Damon and Brown then proceeded to butt heads on the issue of diversity, which inspired a handful of think pieces across the entertainment media landscape (including this one from Slate). The debate, however, didn't give rise to an interesting movie. Indeed, that wasn't the only drama that transpired behind-the-scenes of "Project Greenlight" season 4, either. (You can click that link for all the details.)
The reviews for "The Leisure Class" were negative but not angry. The critics largely agreed the movie wasn't offensive so much as insubstantial. It's a weak film with uninteresting characters and passes by the eyeballs without them noticing. Keith Uhlich, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, also noted that the finales of "Project Greenlight" are merely incidental adjuncts to the documentary series that preceded them, and that "The Leisure Class" was proudly no exception. "We're here to judge 'The Leisure Class' itself," he wrote, "and hoo boy, what a whole lot of nothing this purported comedy is." Davison took it on the chin as well, with Uhlich writing, "As [the] demonic politician father, Bruce Davison gives a spectacularly unmoored performance that, in the best of all possible worlds, would have the Razzie committee salivating like Pavlov's dogs."
Variety's Brian Lowry wasn't any kinder but was at least more dispassionate, writing that the satirical edge was missing and that the actual targets of the film's parody aren't wholly clear. Are we meant to root for William the conman, a righteous destroyer of the upper class? Or are we meant to sympathize with the teary Fiona?
The idea behind "Project Greenlight" remains sound, but it would have helped if the filmmakers fought to make good movies. If "The Leisure Class" is any indicator, the show was much ado about nothing.
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