In 2003 one movie left the world baffled, confused and unsure of whether to laugh or cringe at what they were seeing.
This movie was The Room.
Written, directed, produced and starring the larger than life Tommy Wiseau, The Room is considered to by many to be the greatest worst movie ever made.
The acting is laughably bad, the story and characters are inconsistent and numerous sub plots appear and disappear at the drop of a hat.
Yet, despite this, the movie has persevered to become a cult classic, with sold out showings the world over.
This movie is a complete enigma so I guess it makes sense that someone would want to make a movie about it.
James Franco turns out to be that person because, much like Wiseau, he both stars and directs The Disaster Artist, which is based off the making of The Room.
However, unlike Wiseau, Franco was able to make a really good film.
The Disaster Artists is fascinating to watch, not only for people who have seen The Room but those who have not as well.
Franco stars as Wiseau and his brother Dave Franco stars as Greg Sestero, Wiseau’s friend, who played Mark in The Room.
The film highlights Wiseau and Sestero’s friendship and how it lead to the making of The Room.
Both Franco brothers give fantastic performances in this movie, especially James Franco.
I was originally concerned that he would just do a Wiseau impersonation the entire film but my fears immediately disappeared as soon as he appeared on screen.
Franco is not just playing Tommy Wiseau, he IS Tommy Wiseau.
It was fascinating to watch this strange character interact with others, who are often shocked and freaked out by his mannerisms.
“Is this guy for real,” is a common reaction among the characters.
Dave Franco is also great as Sestero and the film did a really good job of showing why he would befriend such an eccentric person.
The other actors, like Seth Rogen, also do a great job and there were even quite a few cameos in the film.
Although this did kind of take away from the film to be constantly going, “hey, is that who I think it is?”
The Disaster Artist is basically cut into two parts.
While the first part establishes Wiseau and Sestero’s friendship, the second part focuses on the making of The Room and this is where the movie really gets good.
Like Franco’s performance, I was also concerned about how the film would portray the making of The Room.
I was worried it would just be a bunch of jokes and scenes that only those who had seen The Room would understand.
However, once again, the movie surprised me.
While it certainly does have jokes about The Room, the audience is never left out.
It is explained why these scenes do not work in the film and in a very funny fashion.
Another thing I liked about The Disaster Artist was it did not deliberately set out to mock The Room.
It would have been easy to make fun of Wiseau and how he completely misunderstood how to make a film but the movie does not do this.
Although the movie does sometimes poke fun at Wiseau, it also portrays him in a way that makes you root for him.
We all have dreams of becoming famous or making something that people will appreciate that do not always work out and it is very engaging to watch Wiseau’s journey to actually accomplish it, even though it does not turn out like he hoped it would.
In fact, my favourite part of the movie was the ending, where it was established why this film is so ingrained in pop culture.
It left a smile on my face.
However, not all is perfect as the camera work sometimes stumbles a bit.
Most of the shots are hand held and this does not work for some scenes.
It felt like some of the scenes should have been static shots and, with the camera constantly moving around, it felt a bit jarring at times.
Still, The Disaster Artist is an enjoyable and oddly inspirational film that shows why The Room has become the cult classic it is today.
It made me want to go and re-watch The Room so I could both laugh and cringe all over again.
THE REVIEW MONSTER 