‘The Disaster Artist’ Review

The Room is often considered to be one of the worst movies ever made. However, it has gained the status of being so bad that it is actually entertaining. The creator of The Room, Tommy Wiseau, has become a cultural phenomenon, mainly because this man is a mystery. To this day, no one knows where he is from, how he got the money to fund the movie or his actual age. 

I find The Room to be fascinating in the sense that it is fascinating how this movie got made. The acting is terrible, the dialogue is uncomfortable and awkward, the sex scenes are almost pornographic and there are so many plot details that are either not explained or forgotten. There is so much going on behind the scenes of The Room and this movie does a great job at showing it and showing who Tommy Wiseau is.

Plot

Tommy Wiseau (James Franco) and Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) are two friends who move to Los Angeles with hopes of becoming successful and famous. After constantly being rejected, Wiseau and Sestero develop an idea to just make a movie themselves.

 The movie is called The Room and it is starring, produced, written, and directed by Wiseau. As the cast and crew work on this movie, they begin to discover that Wiseau’s vision is crazier than they could ever imagine.

Characters

Both of the Franco brothers are great in this movie. Dave did a really good job as Sestero. He is trying to become successful, but he is also trying to be a good friend to Wiseau at the same time. I thought he and James had excellent chemistry throughout the movie. James is clearly the standout in this movie though. 

He does an amazing impression of Wiseau, but he also does a great job at humanizing Wiseau. He makes him seem like less of a joke and more like a real person who wants his vision to be respected but keeps getting rejected.

There are a lot of good supporting cast members too. Seth Rogen plays the script supervisor of the movie and he is really funny. He is basically the audience. He makes a bunch of comments about The Room that audience members have been making for years. The people who portray other characters in The Room, such as Denny and Lisa also do a good job. 

Some of these actors include Josh Hutcherson as Denny and Zac Efron as the crazy drug dealer who threatens Denny. There are a lot of cameos in this movie from celebrities so I think a lot of people know about the craziness that is The Room.

Direction

James Franco also directs this movie and he does a really good job. I liked how he portrayed the friendship between Sestero and Wiseau. That became the centerpiece for this movie and it worked really well. Their relationship was really done. He also did a great job with the humor. Sometimes it is actual jokes that are funny, while other times it is just the ridiculousness of Wiseau and the production of The Room.

I also liked how Franco handled the public’s reaction to The Room. At first, it’s pretty funny, but you do see the effect that it has on Wiseau and it makes his story more relatable. There is a bit of redemption for Wiseau at the end and it is very rewarding.

Final Thoughts

The Disaster Artist is a great movie about a terrible movie. It has a lot of funny moments, but it also fits in a lot of heartfelt and dramatic moments. It has a lot of references and moments from The Room that will make people who have seen it laugh out loud. However, if you haven’t seen The Room, you can still appreciate this movie and it will probably make you want to see The Room to see what the hell happened.

Rating: 4/5