The Disaster Artist

 

Movie, 2017, R

Premise - A biographical film on the making of the 2003 film The Room, often dubbed as one of the worst films of all time. Greg Sestero, an aspiring actor, befriends a fellow aspiring actor Tommy Wiseau. Tommy, a complete mystery

 

Review - It was good to have at least a little bit of context going into this movie, as the whole thing is absurdist, but part of the comedy is that the absurdity is based on reality. Before launching into the film, I did not see the entirety of The Room, but I did watch enough clips to get the gist and know what I was getting myself into.

 

The gist is that this man is incredibly socially awkward, does not seem to recognize any social cues, have any expression to his tone that denotes any social awareness whatsoever, and has a thick Eastern European accent. The humor is not so much in his work as it is... him. And to be honest, it made me uncomfortable at first. I got the sense that this man was being laughed at, rather than laughed with. He generally tried his absolute best to make a sophisticated film. And it appears that English is not his first language, and that perhaps he has some autism spectrum disorder or something. I don't know what's up but it's gotta be something.

 

The more I got into the film and the lore behind Tommy Wiseau, the more I respected him and his legend. I felt much more comfortable laughing at him because he was asking to be laughed at. He loves the attention, he loves the mystery, he loves the absurdity. No one knows where this man comes from, or where he got his money, and he makes people go "What.........?" and that's his money-maker. It also just unabashedly the way he is and he seems to experience no shame for it. So laugh away.

 

James Franco's impression was spot on. Dave Franco was a really likeable protagonist. Seth Rogen does "what the fuck" humor really well. And then Zac Efron and Josh Hutcherson, two childhood crushes, even made appearances that were really satisfying.

 

Tommy Wiseau mentioned that he thought the film was far more representative of his story than the book, which makes a lot of presumptions about where Tommy came from. Don't question it, just roll with it and laugh. (87/100)

 

Quote - "I did not hit her. It's not true! It's bullshit! I did not hit her! I did not! Oh hi, Mark"

 

What to watch for - Like I said, Zac Efron and Josh Hutcherson make cameos and yes yes yes.

If you liked this movie, I'd recommend seeing the original The Room! I've only seen a bunch of clips (the most famous ones for sure) but not the entire movie from start to finish.

 

Based on the book of the same name by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell. Book based on true events.

Directed by James Franco

Distributed by A24