***** outta *****

5 outta 5

The Room written, starring and directed by Tommy Wiseau is an oddly fascinating cinematic Rorschach test wherein each viewer can see different things about it.  Wiseau was trying to say something but what exactly nobody knows, possibly not even himself.  The excellent and consistently hilarious The Disaster Artist delves into The Room’s creation and with a very enjoyable cast and a cracking script.  In The Room the main character says the world would be a better place if more people loved each other and that theme continues here where Disaster Artist is about someone making a friend and not quite knowing how to deal with them.  And making gawdawful movies along the way.

Greg (Dave Franco) is a struggling young actor who meets an (probably) older actor named Tommy Wiseau (James Franco).  Greg is not confident and downright timid in his acting method and Tommy urges Greg to seek the inner truth and show passion.  Inspired, they move out to L.A. where Tommy has another apartment just sitting around.  Much like his age, Tommy refuses to say where he is from and where his money comes from.   After being rejected across town, Tommy decides to write and direct his own movie starring himself and Greg called The Room.  Throwing an inordinate amount of cash and an often confused crew at an incomprehensibly bad script, the aggravation between the two friends keeps piling up as Tommy gets increasingly angry, unreliable and downright incompetent as the shoot stretches out. And what they may be making might not just be bad, it may be insanely bad.

Pulling double duty as director and star, James Franco puts in a fantastic performance as Wiseau. Almost everything he says is a hilarious nonsense and completely unexpected.  He does a bang on impression of Wiseau but manages to show some emotional depth even buried behind an impenetrable accent.  Tommy has passion but no talent, as in one scene where he corners producer Judd Apatow (playing himself rather awesomely) and Tommy drops an impromptu audition that Apatow tears apart.  In a fantastic bit, Tommy has his first big scene where he has to come out and say a few lines and he just keeps flubbing it as the crew goes from fascinated to frustrated to exhausted.  When Tommy finally hits it, they don’t care about acting quality just that they got it done.   While Wiseau’s friendship with Greg may on the surface seem lecherous, it’s actually pretty genuine.  Wiseau just believes in the power of friendship and will go so far as to make a movie for his best friend.  When Greg gets a girlfriend, it throws Tommy’s entire perspective out of whack. 

One thing Disaster Artist does really well is showing how even in a movie as bad as The Room when filmmakers are in the thick of it they can’t tell how it’s going to turn out.   Seth Rogen plays the script supervisor but basically ends up directing the movie as Wiseau is too out there.  Rogen has the movie’s best quips as he comments on the chaos happening around them as the jaded crew are simply doing their jobs as Wiseau keeps hollering about how it’s supposed to be “a real American movie”.   It’s hilarious how Wiseau tries acting; when Greg’s character Mark tells about something horrible that happened and Wiseau’s character Johnny has a strangely inappropriate reaction that Wiseau refuses to change.   In the end, they just move on to another scene.  

People drop out of the shoot as it drags on and even Greg has a crisis moment when he could get a small gig on Malcolm in the Middle and Tommy goes from buddy to dictator.  There’s a great meltdown that Tommy has in the midst of filming a love scene that shows just how crazy he’s gotten and James Franco sells Tommy’s insanity.  Dave Franco shows how Greg starts as an idealist but Wiseau’s sheer oddball attitude makes Greg a bitter cynic.  The Franco brothers are very funny as it’s a classic comedy pairing of straight man and crazy guy. 

It’s not until they get it the film front of an audience in one piece that they can see how it turned out.  The finale when they screen the movie is great as Tommy has to endure the audience’s reaction and how Greg helps him deal with it.  It’s made by a bunch of people who probably didn’t know what they were doing and showing it is the emotional climax.   Usually movies about people who try to succeed in show business involve characters who have actual talent but here, Tommy and Greg are just bumbling through without the skills to succeed.  They don’t get better; they only do what they can accomplish so they end up making a movie that is incredibly, compellingly terrible.     

Closing with a side by side shot by shot comparison of scenes from The Room and Disaster Artist it’s uncanny how Disaster Artist nailed the tone.   This isn’t really a send up of The Room but a love letter to filmmakers pursuing a dream. Just because they’re awful doesn’t mean it’s not valid.  Art can start out one way and end up completely different by the end but the point is they tried.