When hearing there was going to be a biopic surrounding the infamous Tommy Wiseau and the making of his epic masterpiece "The Room," the hype could not have been higher than it was. The love for Wiseau’s “drama” is indescribable and bigger than Wiseau, himself, would have imagined. Greg Sestero had written a memoir about his struggles as a young actor and his odd relationship with Wiseau entitled "The Disaster Artist" in 2013, but the book’s main topic was surrounding the ludicrous production of "The Room." After the brilliant marketing and promotion of the buzzed A24-released feature, "The Disaster Artist" was high on my most anticipated of 2017.
It amazes me how phenomenal a film about the making of a bad film ended up being, but that’s all due to how James Franco brought this story to life. He is no stranger to directing, however it comes to show that "The Disaster Artist" will be the one to grab a ton of attention from his director’s catalog. Franco also takes on the role of Tommy Wiseau and brings him to life in an almost-realistic way, without being over-the-top similar to how Vincent Chase portrayed Pablo Escobar for a biopic in "Entourage." Franco gives one of the year’s best performances and should not be overlooked by critics and audiences, as it’s his best since "Spring Breakers."
My admiration for the screenplay was humungous, as the dialogue was sharp and rich, while also having the storytelling being inspirational and epic to a certain extent. Screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber of "(500) Days of Summer" and "The Spectacular Now" fame bring the story and characters to life in such a beautiful way that make you care about everyone that was on-screen, even Wiseau. The film also moves along at an extremely fast-rate that leads the audience member wanting more to what happened surrounding "The Room" and the balance between the comedy and drama was handled perfectly. People are going to walk into this film expecting it to be a straight-up comedy, but there’s also a ton of drama that was sincere and it made you care more for Wiseau and everyone involved with the making of "The Room."
While Franco is clearly the star of this film, there should be a lot of credit given to his brother Dave, who is equally terrific as Sistero. I haven’t admired Dave Franco in a lot of projects, even if I enjoy what he is in, but this was an outstanding performance and I thought it was going to be a distraction due to nepotism. There was just something surreal that made that annoying factor disappear ten minutes into "The Disaster Artist." The rest of the cast was strong and it is still insane to see Seth Rogen play non-stoner characters, after speaking Aaron Sorkin-written dialogue in "Steve Jobs."
I can’t say the film is perfect, as there are certain aspects I would have wanted to see be discussed. But what I can say is that I had an utter blast from start to finish with "The Disaster Artist" and it makes me respect James Franco a lot more than I had anticipated. He hasn’t had that big hit in years and this is going to change a lot of people’s perspective on him, as well as Tommy Wiseau and "The Room." A24 just continues to be the incredible studio that they are and 2017 looks to be another strong year for them with the awards. While this isn’t my favorite from them this year, it’s high-up alongside "Good Time," "Lady Bird," and "The Florida Project." Also, this contains a post-credits scene that is better than anything Marvel has ever done!
