Although films about filmmaking are generally a bad idea, it’s always gratifying to see hipster indie wannabes get their comeuppance. Only in this indie feature, which masquerades as the making-of companion to a gritty NYC documentary, one’s feelings are more complicated by the end. The theme of do-gooder liberals in Brooklyn was handled better in Half Nelson, and The Project trips on its multiple cameras and scenes in the editing room, where we watch the next or prior scene being edited. (Meta!) Self-conscious deconstruction aside, the three naive young filmmakers are implicated in their ghetto vérité project, pushing the lens into places where it’s not wanted, and triggering gangsta responses. Writer-director Ryan Piotrowicz relies too much on contrivance, as cops, filmmakers, and the members of a struggling black family are drawn into confrontation. A good Law & Order episode could achieve the same end with more clarity. But The Project has a similarly serious intent that its three aspiring filmmakers lack. (NR) BRIAN MILLER

Thu., Dec. 18, 7 p.m., 2008