Tommy Wiseau's melodrama The Room became a cult classic of bad movies after its 2003 debut. Ten years later, Wiseau's co-star and real life friend Greg Sestero co-wrote a book about his experiences on the set, The Disaster Artist. We now have the film of the book, directed by and starring James Franco with his brother Dave.
It's 1998 and Greg Sestero (Dave) is an aspiring student in San Francisco. He lacks the confidence that the eccentric, uniquely-accented Tommy Wiseau (James) has. Greg and Tommy strike a friendship and move to Los Angeles to make it big. But only Greg has slightly more success than Tommy. Tommy decides to make his own movie, The Room.
The film stars Tommy as Johnny, a "wonderful person" who loves his
Tommy's unique view of the film-making process causes problems. He wastes money on unnecessary equipment and sets and neglects necessary equipment. He forgets the lines that he, himself, wrote. He shows up late to the set a few times and treats the cast and crew poorly. He can't even explain the plot of the movie. The troubled production strains Greg and Tommy's friendship. It also leads Greg and others to question if The Room would ever be released.
Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber's screenplay builds a compelling narrative around the madness. It's a story of Hollywood dreams that made me think of a darker La La Land. Greg and Tommy's story shows how hard it is to break into filmmaking. It even shows how hard it is to run a cheap film set. But it still can be rewarding. Its recreation of The Room's most infamous moments ("I did not hit her. It's not true [...] Oh, hi Mark.") is a laugh riot. The end credits even begin with side-by-side recreations of the actual movie, including multiple takes of the same scenes.
James Franco as Tommy is great. He matches his real-life counterpart's eccentricities and accent perfectly. His unique worldview is a laugh riot. He hams up A Streetcar Named Desire in his first scene. But you'll feel it when Tommy's dark side appears. You won't laugh when Tommy's negligence causes Carolyn Minnott (Jacki Weaver), playing Lisa's mother, to pass out (she recovers quickly, though). It felt like Tommy was venting out his frustrations, some of which we know, on the crew. But that's not right. That subtext made him more like a character than an impersonation. The real Wiseau himself appears in a post-credit scene opposite his movie counterpart.
Dave Franco as Greg is also excellent. He's a strong protagonist whose aspirations are admirable. We can feel his frustrations as the production and his personal life go wrong. It's not easy, for sure. The supporting cast is made of notable actors. Co-Producer Seth Rogen plays Sandy Schklair, The Room's script supervisor and de-facto director, and a perfect sane man. Sharon Stone and Melanie Griffith have notable cameos as Greg's agent, Iris Burton and acting teacher, Jean Shelton, respectively. But the best supporting part has to be Zac Efron as Dan Janjigian, who plays a violent drug-dealer who factors in one of The Room's pointless subplots.
The production and costume designers perfectly recreate the now-iconic imagery of The Room. The characters within the movie-within-a-movie look like the original movie's characters. Cinematographer Brandon Tost gives us a good look at Los Angeles, especially at night. His recreations of the original film look straight out of 2003. It also helped that the film was edited nicely by Stacey Schroeder. Dave Porter's score makes for a memorable soundtrack.
The Disaster Artist is sure to please anyone who adores The Room. It might baffle a few others, though. There were a few things it left out, but the end result is still a capable story about Hollywood and friendship. This might be the closest I get to seeing The Room on the big screen. And I wasn't disappointed.
Ha ha. What a story, Jethro.
Yeah, you can say that again.
Huh?
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