In 2003, the world was first able to experience one of the worst movies ever. This cinematic disaster represents the ultimate symbol of the concept of something being ‘so bad that it’s good.’ I am speaking, of course, of Tommy Wiseau’s terrible masterpiece “The Room.”
“The Room” tells the story of a successful banker named Johnny. Everything seems to be going well in his life until his fiancee Lisa and his best friend Mark start having an affair. The majority of the film consists of strange sex scenes, hilariously awful dialogue, and random plot points that are introduced once but then never come into play again.
The man behind this brilliant piece of work is the one and only Tommy Wiseau, who wrote, directed, produced and starred in “The Room” as Johnny. This movie has developed a devoted cult following because of how hilariously bad it is, and one person particularly inspired by Tommy was James Franco, who decided to make his own movie about the making of “The Room,” thus leading to one of the best films to come out in some time, “The Disaster Artist,” which was released this past December.
In true Wiseau fashion, James Franco directed the film and starred as Tommy Wiseau. His portrayal of Tommy is spot-on, successfully capturing Tommy’s long, dark hair and his not so great grasp of the English language.
As a side note, I know that it is already January and movie reviews generally come out right when a movie is first released, but I am breaking the mold this time, hence my “way too late” review of this movie.
“The Disaster Artist” tells the story of how Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero (who plays Mark in “The Room”) met in an acting class in San Francisco, then became close friends and decided to move to Los Angeles together to try and make it in the cut-throat world of show business. Greg is able to land an agent and finds a little bit of acting work, but nothing too exciting, and Tommy cannot seem to get anywhere at all. So, frustrated by the competitive world of Hollywood, Tommy decides to write and direct his own movie for him and Greg to star in, and the story of “The Room” begins.
Tommy Wiseau payed out of pocket to finance the film, and the cost of the production is said to have been somewhere around $5 million. Nobody knows how Wiseau got the money, just like nobody knows how old he is or where he is originally from. He is very private about these things, even insisting he is from New Orleans, although his accent suggests somewhere more like Eastern Europe.
In “The Disaster Artist,” James Franco is brilliant in his portrayal of Wiseau, and his brother Dave Franco stars as Greg Sestero in another great performance, although James manages to outshine every other performance in the movie by far.
The best part about “The Room” was all of the incredibly quotable lines that Wiseau’s character says, and “The Disaster Artist” adds a whole new list of Tommy Wiseau quotes to the bunch.
“The Disaster Artist” is brilliant, hilarious and tells the honest story of two dreamers coming to Hollywood to try and achieve greatness, and sort of succeeding. The movie is good enough to stand on its own, but I would definitely recommend watching “The Room” first for maximum enjoyment.
It is easily one of the best movies I have seen in a long time, and ever since watching it I feel the need to say just about everything in Tommy Wiseau’s voice.
