THE DISASTER ARTIST

The Disaster Artist (2017)

Rating: 7.5/10

STARRING: Dave Franco, James Franco, Seth Rogen, Ari Graynor, Paul Scheer and Alison Brie, with Josh Hutcherson as “Denny”, Zac Efron as “Chris-R”, Jacki Weaver as “Claudette”, and Nathan Fielder as “Peter”

RATED R for constant strong language, sexual references, and brief nudity

Oh, hiii readers…

First off, if you have not heard of The Room, the famously-bad 2003 drama directed by, written by, produced by, and starring one Tommy Wiseau, go look it up. It was recently the subject of a 6-minute long Honest Trailer by Youtube’s ScreenJunkies channel. Personally, I first came to know of it via The Nostalgia Critic, Doug Walker, a Youtube personality who reviews and criticizes bad movies. The contemporary answer to all-time-bad-film Plan Nine from Outer Space, The Room is a clumsily written, directed, and acted film about Johnny (the pale, vaguely-Eastern-European-accented Wiseau), who has his heart broken when his girlfriend Lisa decides she’s not in love with him anymore and seduces his best friend Mark. This begins a dramatic spiral that ends with Johnny’s suicide. The film – a cult hit that still sells out special screenings of fans dying to laugh at it – is horrendous, packed to the brim with awkward dialogue, oddly positioned sex scenes, obvious grown men playing “fresh-faced” teenagers, random inconsequential admissions of breast cancer diagnosis, and games of football toss in alleyways in which the participants wear tuxedos for no particular reason.

Mark was played in the film by actor Greg Sestero, who later paired with Tom Bissell to write a memoir—“The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made”. The book has now been adapted into this movie, a Golden Globe-nominated comedy starring the Franco brothers, James and Dave. The Disaster Artist chronicles how Sestero (Dave) met the aforementioned Wiseau (James) in an acting class, and thus began an unlikely friendship/partnership that led to Sestero getting second billing in Wiseau’s brainchild The Room. Having seen and laughed at the aforementioned ScreenJunkies and Nostalgia Critic parodies of The Room, and having heard of the mad genius of the film, I was excited to see this movie.

Oh my gooooodness….

The Disaster Artist is a stunning, hilarious, awkward, outrageous, and nerve-shreddingly-uncomfortable – yet also legitimately touching – film about misguided ambition. Really, it’s about following one’s dreams. Just because we don’t all look, sound, and act like people aspiring to be great artists doesn’t mean we aren’t.

As seen early on, Greg Sestero has looks but little talent. He yearns to be a star, but can’t pull any excitement or charisma out of himself. So when he sees fellow acting classmate Tommy Wiseau do a remarkably un-self-conscious rendition of the “Stella” scene fromTennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire”, he’s intrigued. And Tommy turns out to be a nice guy. Nice, but weird. He claims only to be from New Orleans, and he claims to be the same age as Greg, who is in his early 20s. But his lank black hair, drooping blue eyes, and lazy, mumbling deadpan speech suggest those are far from the truth. Nonetheless, he’s polite, and immediately hooks Greg with his self-assured, devil-may-care approach to life. He’s impulsive and adventurous, a dreamer, his unique way of doing things backed by a large and mysterious personal fortune. While it’s clear to almost everyone that Tommy does not have the look, personality, or diction for screen acting, the desperate Greg sees someone who shares his dreams of making it, and who is relentlessly optimistic. The two men become roommates at Tommy’s apartment in Los Angeles, and begin auditioning for roles. But when Tommy attempts to impress a Hollywood producer and causes a public scene, he’s angrily told he has no talent and will never make it. His sunshine-y disposition sours, but Greg cheers him up by suggesting he make his own movie. Nearly three years later, Tommy drops the script for The Room in front of Greg, saying he wants him to be the co-lead. If Greg thought knowing and living with the social-nightmare Tommy could be tricky before, he hasn’t seen anything yet. Tommy has money but nothing else, the script is a disaster, production falls into chaos and The Room turns out to be, well, The Room.

Assuming Sestero and Bissell are not lying or exaggerating in the book for which the film is named, The Disaster Artist has to be viewed with incredulity. It’s hard to believe this fish-out-of-water tale is real. I was practically watching through my fingers in mortification as Tommy has Greg loudly improv lines in public to overcome his stage fright, bellows Shakespeare in nice restaurants to get the attention of studio execs, and “oversees” the miserable production of his terrible movie.

Uncomfortable as it is, The Disaster Artist had to be a hoot to make. There is clearly a deep, cult-ish love for The Room. How else would name actors like Seth Rogen, Josh Hutcherson and Zac Efron be dying to come aboard to play hapless participants in the production of the classic? How else would actors like Bryan Cranston, Jackie Weaver, Adam Scott and Kristen Bell volunteer their time? The Room is a bizzaro, from-another-universe type of work, but I’m guessing each actor in Hollywood sees something of themselves in the ambition, the passion, the awkwardness, the sheer unforgettable madness of Wiseau’s film. Seriously, The Disaster Artist is a gem just for the passion with which it was clearly made—the movie ends with almost five full minutes of The Room clips juxtaposed opposite The Disaster Artist cast’s shot-for-shot, movement-for-movement renditions of all the most (in)famous scenes. If you know The Room, you know which ones:

“You’re tearing me apart, Lisa!”

“Johnny’s my best friend.”

“I did not hit her. It’s not true. It’s bulls***. I did not hit her. I did not. Oh hi Mark.”

“I got the results of the test back. I definitely have breast cancer.”

“Anything for my princesssss.”

Like I said, watching The Disaster Artist made me physically uncomfortable at times. Tommy Wiseau would make Michael Scott or Leslie Knope uncomfortable with his unfiltered antics. Honestly, I was so tense and unnerved I wanted to leave the theater at certain points. But the crazy thing is, just as the movie turns out to be a look at not the quality of the finished product of The Room, but about the passion and the measure of the dream, I’m catching myself now asking why I had that reaction, and whether I should have. It’s just a movie, but—how do I treat people in my life who may be a little different from me? People with different voices, or different looks, or different personal thresholds for enthusiasm and embarrassment in social situations? Do I judge books by their covers? If I met Tommy Wiseau, or someone like him, would I immediately reject him because he doesn’t look or act like I think a “normal” person should?

This doesn’t have to even be about celebrities, or people who make bad movies when they think they’re making good ones? How do I react to people with physical handicaps, with speech impediments, with other defects? Do I shy away and treat them differently, or do I still appreciate what they have to offer, treat them with respect, kindness, and dignity? At least according to the movie, Greg Sestero learned to appreciate the experience of making The Room even when an audience full of people was howling with laughter on the night of the premiere. Greg, an untalented actor, was seeing himself on a massive silver screen, in a real theater populated by actors and other industry folks, who were enjoying themselves, laughing and cheering. He wasn’t about to win any Oscars or hit it big, but he had accomplished his dream of being a star in a real movie—just in an unconventional way.  

Obviously, The Disaster Artist would be nothing without the 110% commitment of the Franco brothers, James and Dave. Dave, 32, who rose to fame with his hilarious performances in screwball comedies like 21 Jump Street and Neighbors, is terrific as the audience’s catalyst, a voice of reason in the circus that surrounds Tommy Wiseau. But all the buzz around Disaster Artist is around big brother James, 39, who also directed, and there’s no question why. The elder Franco came up in serious roles, as Harry Osborne in the Sam Raimi Spiderman trilogy and the former titular character in the would-be epic medieval romance Tristan & Isolde. He’s even been nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, for playing real life wilderness survivor Aron Ralston in the 2010 Best Picture nominee 127 Hours. But James has found his greatest success is wacky comedies (The Pineapple Express, This is the End, The Interview) and wackier roles (Spring Breakers, Why Him?). To put it bluntly, the plays-by-his-own-rules artiste has tended to rub me the wrong way…which makes him a perfect candidate to play the so-strange-he’s-got-to-be-from-another-planet Wiseau. And, in a manner that would surely make the infamous auteur proud, James inhabits Wiseau, not just with the eyes and the hair, but his odd diction, his body language, and his complete unabashed approach to the role. It really is gold—he disappears into the role, and would deserve an Oscar nomination if he got it.

In Summary

The Disaster Artist may have made me physically uncomfortable at times -- enough that I can’t say I would sit through the whole thing again -- but man is it a special little treasure of a movie. A recreation of the making of the famously-bad 2003 drama The Room, it invites you to laugh out loud at its absurdity. James Franco goes all-in as the mysterious, mumbling, socially-awkward Tommy Wiseau – the writer/director/star of The Room – in a performance that has already gotten a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination and deserves Oscar consideration. His brother Dave is just as good, as the hapless dreamer/co-star who befriends this oddity of a man and ends up the better for it. And that's the point. This story of the now cult-classic – which still sells out special screenings of people dying to have a good time watching it with their friends – isn’t just a snarky Hollywood take on a bad movie. It’s a parable about following your dreams, about believing in yourself and your friends, about aiming high against all reason, and driving toward your goals with passion. Like the old Les Brown quote says: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land among the stars.”

The Disaster Artist (2017)

Rating: 8/10

Directed by James Franco

Screenplay by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber

Based on the book “The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made”, by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell

Rated R

Length: 1 hour, 44 minutes