FWIW, The Room is not the worst film I’ve ever seen. That’s decades of MST3K talking. The Room is a terrible film by any standard and one that’s hard to watch, even in jest. What does that have to do with anything? The making of The Room -and don’t you dare confuse it with the film that garnered Brie Larson an Oscar– is how The Disaster Artist earned his title.
There are three things about Tommy Wiseau that nobody-but-Tommy knows*: 1) Where’s he from? 2) How old is he? and 3) Where did he get all that money? These questions might bother you until you learn more about Wiseau … and then they might really bother you.
This idiocy began at an acting workshop in San Francisco. It’s the kind of place where aspirants emerge to become the best waiters they can be. Greg (Dave Franco – huh, he has the same last name as the director :P ) has performance issues. Hey buddy, it can happen to anybody. And then Tommy (James Franco) assumes the spotlight and offers up a death so filled with ham that vegetarians start protesting. What appears to us as the caterwauling of a man for whom video cameras should have a restraining order impresses Greg for its unbridled whatever. It’s clear that Tommy is the local Liberace of trash acting. Uh oh, Greg is smitten.
Once introduced, Tommy becomes the film. A bizarre, uninhibited, big-hair mess of man, Tommy claims to be from New Orleans, which does nothing to describe a weirdly Slavic accent or the fact that he throws a football as one might skip a stone, launch a shotput, or toss a caber. Well, it’s not like they’ve got football in New Orleans or San Francisco, right? Greg starts out being a script partner for their unrequested improv work at local diners. Then they up and move to Los Angeles, where Tommy owns an apartment, what?! And after the two struggle for months of not making it, Greg jokingly suggests they should make their own movie. For Tommy, this idea is a lightning bolt. It turns out he has the money to make a movie, what?! And the seed has been planted.
Script consultant (and second director) for The Room, Sandy (Seth Rogen) becomes the in-film audience for The Disaster Artist. He can’t believe his paycheck doesn’t bounce; more than that, he can’t believe Tommy Wiseau – thankfully for the crew it isn’t until Day 8 of shooting that Tommy takes the stage. Until then, all Tommy’s players had to deal with was his many shortcomings as a boss and human being. When Tommy starts to “act,” oh my. Ever thought you didn’t have the talent for Hollywood? This joker’s film has been seen by more than a million people and whomever you are, you are more talented than Tommy.
The Room was not just a labor of love, which is to say a horrible, frightening, obsequious labor of love, it was also a tribute to privilege. Without the bottomless pockets that financed this Disaster, Tommy Wiseau is forever an unknown. I’m of mixed mind about that; in the history of cinema, literally thousands of people have made terrible films. Why do you know this one? Because Tommy Wiseau had enough money to buy an audience for it. There’s something wrong in the idea that even the popularity of our favorite fools can be ranked by pocketbook. OTOH, would I rather a vain multi-millionaire use his excess cash to make a self-serving trashy movie or influence public policy? Depends on the vain multi-millionaire, of course, but I’d likely take the movie six days out of seven.
Not unlike Wiseau’s The Room, it’s pretty clear that The Disaster Artist was a labor of love for star/director James Franco. I’ve warmed to the idea of Franco as a genuine actor and not just somebody the camera
loves. His roles in 127 Hours and Spring Breakers were convincing evidence that James wasn’t just another pony in Judd Apatow’s personal stable. But here, James takes it to the next level. Those who have seen The Room will see it, too. For 104 minutes, James Franco IS Tommy Wiseau, with every little piece of his ridiculous accent, hair and energy. Not only is this Franco’s best work as an actor; I never expect him to better it no matter how many films he appears in.
As for The Disaster Artist, I was hoping my MST3K knowledge of The Room would be a boon, but I think instead it’s a bit of a burden. I already had a darn good idea of who Tommy Wiseau was, hence the joke of his life – that it seems like parody but isn’t – is wasted on people who know it already. For the uninitiated, however, this is potentially the funniest film you see this year.
In talent, Tommy was born with a void
Rendering him forever unemployed
Yet his dream satisfied
Prompting those who eyed
To indulge in viewer schadenfreude
Rated R, 104 Minutes
Director: James Franco
Writer: Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber
Genre: Who is this guy?
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Tommy Wiseau fanatics
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People with no stomach for oddballs
* Editor’s note: At least two of these, true at the time, are no longer true now. IMDB sez Tommy Wiseau was born October 3, 1955 in Poznan, Poland, making him 48 (!!) when The Room was released to the wild.
