Directed by James Franco
Where & When: Arclight Cinemas, Hollywood, CA. December 5, 2017 5:30 PM
I remember seeing posters scattered around town in L.A. years ago of an extreme closeup of a scary looking man's face advertising a movie called "The Room". This disturbing image never motivated me to find out more about the film, let alone ever going to see it. Months passed, which turned to years and that poster (and soon a billboard) was still around all over the city.
The word was "The Room" was bad. Really bad. Yet despite it's awfulness, many embraced the film for it's guilty pleasures and soon word-of-mouth turned it into a popular cult film. And now we have a Hollywood movie about the making of this trainwreck of a film called "The Disaster Artist" which reveals the background story on how this fiasco turned in to an improbable hit. Based on the memoir by Tom Bissell and the film's co-star, Greg Sestero, the ever-busy James Franco directs and stars as Tommy Wiseau, that scary-looking man who produced, wrote, directed and stars in "The Room". This black comedy details all the chaos and insanity involved behind this absurd creation while occasionally managing to bring a wilder comic spin with their recreation of these events.
Back in 1998, a nineteen year old, Greg Sestero (Dave Franco), living in San Francisco, dreams of being an actor. He takes an acting class and there meets Tommy Wiseau (Franco). With his long, jet black hair, indistinguishable accent and outlandish behavior, Greg finds him utterly fascinating. They become fast friends and both share in the desire of becoming famous actors. Wiseau reveals he has an apartment in L.A. and suggests they move to the city together to make their dreams a reality. While Greg's mother (Megan Mullally) is understandably suspect of this very odd man (who claims to be nineteen as well), Greg jumps at this opportunity and they drive off to Hollywood.
Not long after their arrival, Greg gets an agent (with a brief cameo by Sharon Stone), a few bit parts and a girlfriend (Alison Brie). As for Wiseau, not much happens which leaves him jealous and discouraged. But soon, auditions dry up for Greg and he begins feeling frustrated, wishing some one would write a great starring role just for him. That inspires Wiseau to begin writing a screenplay and the outcome is "The Room". With a major role and an associate producer credit, Greg overlooks the fact that the script is very far from perfect.
After finding a production house, Wiseau, who has no real idea how movies are made, insists on buying all the equipment and hires Sandy Schklair (Seth Rogen) as a script supervisor who ultimately directs much of the film and Raphael Smadja (Paul Scheer) as the director of photography. We begin to see that money is not an issue for our novice filmmaker and spends wildly on his little drama with 35mm film stock, HD digital and green screen visual effects. A cast is assembled (which includes Ari Graynor, Josh Hutcherson and Jacki Weaver playing the actors) and filming begins. But the production is hardly a smooth ride with Wiseau not knowing his lines, arriving late everyday and even reluctant to provide basic needs for the crew like water.
It's understandable why Franco was attracted to this story of how an oddball underdog, with determination, a seemingly endless supply of funds and an incredible amount of luck, was able to complete his creative vision. As a director, Franco seems to have an admiration and fascination for Wiseau's unrelenting drive, clueless determination and blind faith in his talent. There was not much need here for flashy camerawork or production design so Franco tells the story fairly straightforward, relying on the brilliant comic absurdity of the screenplay by the team of Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber ("(500) Days of Summer", "The Fault in Our Stars") to keep things lively. Franco also surrounds himself with friends, family and colleagues in the cast (with some of the additional famous faces that pop up include Melanie Griffith, Zac Efron, Hannibal Buress, Bryan Cranston and Judd Apatow) and they all seem to have fun recreating the scenes from "The Room" right down to the smallest, craziest detail. And as an actor, Franco completely embodies the eccentric Wiseau, expertly displaying all of his outrageous behavior and childish quirks, to deliver one of his best performances.
When we get to the world premiere of "The Room" and the apparent drama is greeted with groans and laughter, Wiseau is horrified and disappointed. Yet, Greg (who have come back together after an estrangement following the shoot) reminds him that the most important thing is that the audience had a good time with the movie. And with the audience applauding at the end of his opus and cheering as he takes the stage, Wiseau is more than willing to accept this compromise.
Without a doubt "The Room", which has gone on to be dubbed "the "Citizen Kane" of bad movies" and this movie will help make the obnoxious Wiseau richer and more famous than he really ought to be and that's my problem with "The Disaster Artist". The film is expertly made, well performed and actually very funny but with his off-putting, gloomy vibe and loopy, accented speech, I really wanted to spend as little time with Wiseau as possible. I couldn't imagine actually working with him and watching all the suffering the crew went through for a paycheck and screen credit became just too much me.
Tommy Wiseau's story may be oddly compelling and a source of inspiration to some but "The Disaster Artist" doesn't really reveal much about this very strange enigma behind the film. In fact, we don't learn anything more about Wiseau than you could gather by actually watching "The Room". And I still have no plans nor interest on doing that. What we do establish is that Wiseau has managed to find incredible success and fame despite lacking any discernible talent at acting, writing or directing. And that is clearly the perfect Hollywood happy ending.
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