As a connoisseur of cinematic trainwrecks, I have really been looking forward to this film. For the uninitiated, The Disaster Artist is the true story of the making of one of the most notoriously awful movies ever made: The Room. I fucking love The Room. I have probably watched it more than a dozen times, and each time I’m enthralled by the nearly majestic failure on display. It is the kind of bad movie that I love. I think I’ve gone on this rant before, but I’m not a big fan of things like Sharknado because they are designed to be bad so that people will talk about them. I also despise things like Justice League and the recent version of The Mummy, as stuff like that is awful due to the influence of creatively bankrupt studios that are indifferent to quality. No, a good bad movie must be sincere. It must come from people that are really, really trying to make something great and they fail miserably. The Disaster Artist is the story of one such failure.
James Franco directs and stars as Tommy Wiseau, an aspiring actor that is struggling to catch a break in San Francisco. He becomes friends with another aspiring actor named Greg (played by Dave Franco) and the two of them move to Los Angeles together to pursue their acting dreams. Still failing to catch a break, largely due to Tommy’s complete lack of talent, the two of them decide to just make their own movie, which ultimately becomes The Room. I was somewhat surprised that the film doesn’t get to the making of The Room until about the halfway point, but the backstory does add valuable context. The whole film feels like watching the creative equivalent of a car accident in slow motion. For those that have seen The Room, the buildup is even more satisfying because we know just how glorious of a wreck its going to be.
In some ways, this movie isn’t what I expected it to be. The trailers make it seem like an outright comedy and, while it is funny, it is more dramatic than the marketing would have you think. The film does portray Tommy as a talentless buffoon, and rightfully so, but it also shows that he really did try. He really cared and wanted to accomplish something (even comparing his work to that of Tennessee Williams). But the guy is just awful and his ineptitude becomes a black hole for the careers of those around him, as many don’t realize that the guy is a joke until they have passed the point of no return. The scenes showing the premiere of The Room are almost sad, as the faces of the other actors are gradually overtaken by a look of dread as they realize just how bad the movie actually is. In a way, The Disaster Artist is a cautionary tale about the dangers of pursuing dreams without the necessary talent.
The movie is funny, though, especially if you have seen The Room. The actors in the film within the film ask some of the same questions that I’ve been asking for years and its hilarious to see them setting up filming on some of the more notorious scenes of The Room (particularly the “Oh, hi Mark” scene). The very end of the movie is great, as they show side-by-side comparisons of this cast recreating scenes from The Room, including my personal favorite: the flower shop scene (seriously watch that on YouTube if you haven’t seen it; its possibly the most disastrous 40 seconds of editing in cinematic history).
I don’t give a shit about awards, but James Franco deserves Oscar consideration for this. Tommy Wiseau is one weird motherfucker. Everything about the guy is just off, from his facial expressions to his accent of questionable origin, and Franco nails it. It’s a funny performance, but Franco also almost makes you feel bad for this guy. Dave Franco is also great as Greg (who ultimately plays Mark in The Room) and sells the naiveite of a decent guy that puts his eggs in the wrong fucking basket. Seth Rogan also pops up as a script supervisor (or something) on the set of The Room and basically acts as a proxy for the audience. Rogan’s character seems to be the only one that realizes just how bad the movie is going to be. He is basically just playing himself, but he does have some of the bigger laughs in the film.
As somebody with an odd obsession with creative failures, I definitely recommend this. Whenever I watch a terrible film, I always wonder how it happened. How did nobody involved with this dumpster fire realize what bad it was? Why didn’t anybody stop it? This is a unique attempt to answer such questions. If you haven’t seen The Room, then you can still enjoy this as a humorous story of failed filmmaking. But you really, really need to watch The Room. And after you watch The Room and sit there puzzled by the shortcomings of mankind, watch The Disaster Artist for the answers that you seek.
Image By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Disaster_Artist_(film)#/media/File:TheDisastorArtistTeaserPoster.jpg
