The Room is a cult classic most notoriously known as the “Best Worst Movie Ever Made”. The movie is an amalgamation of American cinema tropes acted out by amateur actors following a plot that doesn’t make much sense. It’s also filled with an endless amount of hilariously cliche quotes, squawked out by leading man, Tommy Wiseau. Text won’t do many of the justice, so do yourself a favor and either watch The Room in its entirety, or find some of the thousands of memes and videos of it throughout the web to get a good understanding of this monstrosity of a film. You’ll leave with basically the same questions everyone has had after viewing even a small portion of the flick….why? Why did this movie get made? How did this movie get made? Who on Earth funded this project? Did the actors know how bad this movie was going to be, they must’ve, right? Did anyone think this movie would ever be successful? Who is Tommy Wiseau?
All these questions, well a good majority of them, are answered in The Disaster Artist. A movie based on the book written by one of the lead actors in the film, Greg Sestero, donned with the same name. The film’s lead is James Franco who plays Wiseau, his brother Dave who plays Greg, and a myriad of other known “Apatow” celebs, who fill in the other pieces. If you’re wondering if the Disaster Artist aims to just recreate The Room, you’ll be glad it isn’t. Instead, it’s an expose of Tommy Wiseau and how this movie in fact, got made. Much of the film’s success relies on surprising the viewer with unbelievable scenarios that Tommy puts his cast in, so I won’t go into much detail about any scenes. What I want to do rather, is give you my opinion on how I felt about the film, and also determine if The Disaster Artist did the original film justice.
The first thing I want to point out is James Franco’s acting as Wiseau. It’s almost spot on. He does an amazing job at portraying Wiseau in a way that doesn’t feel forced, hacky, or more importantly, disrespectful. Wiseau is a man that speaks with some type of heavy Easter European accent (his origin is unknown to everyone), tied together with American machismo, and somehow Franco nails it. Anyone who’s seen The Room always tries to recreate Wiseau’s dialect, mostly to no avail. In fact, I’ve never seen anyone do the famous “Oh, Hi Johnny” better than Franco. But what’s more impressive is how Franco becomes Wiseau. The way he subtly moves, his ticks – like how Wiseau moves his hair – even down to his odd hunched walk. The only way I can really explain Franco’s performance is impressive. Which is big for this film, because so much of this film is just how mysteriously odd Wiseau is. And I’m happy that Franco was able to deliver. But unfortunately, he’s the only Franco that does deliver.
Dave Franco, who plays the more “normal” Greg Sestero, doesn’t quite fill the role. In fact, it’s down right bad. Sestero is someone who is much more put together, even suave at times. His character screams 90’s all American beach boy and Dave Franco doesn’t even come close to portraying this. Dave Franco’s acting is much like every other role we’ve seen him in. Basically playing himself. In my opinion, he was terribly casted. I also couldn’t get passed how TERRIBLE Dave Franco’s facial hair was in this film. It literally looks like someone glued their pubic hair on to his face. You think I’m kidding? Look at the image below. Now, I know James Franco specifically casted his brother in this film because he “wanted his own Coen brothers” according to his Golden Globes speech. Unfortunately, it misses the mark. Easily the most disappointing part of the film. Though, Greg’s role isn’t as major as Tommy’s so it doesn’t impact the film too much.
Now, because of the great source material and the overall mystique around the film’s development, The Disaster Artist is a film that is entertaining from start to finish. Even if you’ve never seen The Room prior to this film, you’ll enjoy the absurdity of the story. That absurdity never runs dry and continues to get more and more gripping throughout each and every antic Wiseau happens upon. Though, the film starts to lose its grasp on reality towards the final moments, falling into similar cinema tropes we see in most comedies.
Now I really enjoyed my time with this film. I watched it with my brother, the both of us HUGE Room fans. Having that behind-the-scenes look into the making of The Room was something we never thought would’ve been possible. So you can imagine our excitement upon the release of this movie. And because of James Franco’s performance as Tommy Wiseau, and Greg Sestero’s hilarious and detailed account of his time as an actor in The Room, we left feeling relieved. As if all of our questions were answered. Well…most of them. So in my opinion, the film is not only an extremely fun and funny trip through one of cinemas most puzzling flicks, but it also does the original justice, almost being a companion piece that unravels and unpacks the mystery behind it. Even if you’re not a Room fan boy or girl, this is a MUST SEE.
