The Disaster Artist (2017) Review

Director: James Franco

Writer: Screenplay by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber

Date of Release: December 2017

Genre: Biographical drama

Budget: Estimated $10 million

Opening Weekend: $1.2 million

Gross Box Office USA: $20 million

I enjoyed researching Tommy Wiseau but when I published my piece, hardly anyone had heard of The Room and no-one wanted to watch it. I still can’t believe a movie got made about a film that I still see people asking if they need to see the original to understand the biography. (Some say no, but I think a resounding yes is in order.) The Disaster Artist is starting to blow up online and over 6.5 thousand people have reviewed it on Letterboxd.com. The Room itself is gaining popularity according to IMDb.com’s little graph.

This movie is like a car crash and I couldn’t help but give it my full attention. Its raises more questions than answers for me, given that I knew a fair bit about Tommy Wiseau earlier. I laughed at the familiar well-known scenes and giggled at others but then I found myself feeling a little sad.

I loved one characters narrative around her perception of who each character represented in the film saying that Lisa was ‘the world.’ This means that it was 'the world' who betrayed Tommy and stabbed him in the back, not an ex-girlfriend.

One minute it seems like Tommy Wiseau is just a confused quasi genius. Then other times he just comes off as a creepy, eccentric lunatic with a child-like heart and pie in the sky dreams. Tommy paid $6 million to make The Room and that’s a lot to pay for your chance to shine and impress your friend.

The Disaster Artist shows Tommy happy with audience responses after a quick pep-talk, somewhat convinced in the moment of its success. I read that later he ensured all negative reviews or comments disappeared. Where he gets his swagger from in the face of rejection never fails to amaze me. Is he an inspiration to remind people to go after what they want or a message to remind people to that sometimes the end game isn't worth the battle. In any case for Tommy, he is famous for not being famous.

The actors in The Room didn’t go on to do anything noteworthy. None of them.

I submitted an audio file for a critique of The Room for a spot with a local radio station on their show. Thousands of people applied but I had to take the chance. I called myself Vanessa the Popcorn Eater because I was trying to find a name super-quick to do something I had never dreamed I could do as a job. I had never heard of the movie before but I figured everyone else would be doing the popular choices. I didn’t get the gig and when I'm in my car I still get a pang of jealousy every time I hear the familiar intro music for the girl who did get the job.

The link to my first review based on my soundbite is here for The Room (2003.)

I became obsessed after that with trying to make something of reviewing, not professionally, just for fun. I love it. That's how most people's stories go when they have a dream that is bigger than them. Not for Tommy Wiseau, he has an endless cavern of money and just injected himself into the lifestyle.

There are so many conflicting emotions for me with this film I can’t understand how to feel. It highlights just how great a job James Franco did with the direction and his role and how perfectly the cast did with projecting the original mess.

I've since watched some interviews where Tommy talks about this new movie. He has issues with how Franco portrayed him throwing the football. Although the Disaster Artist cast members sit beside him on the couch smiling there is still a sense that it is serious for Mr Wiseau. That he never wavered from believing his film is great and everyone else is wrong. I love to hear his thoughts on the belly button scene, but I doubt I ever will.

I really liked this movie, but overall it made me sad. My sadness comes from the guilt of seeing a universe of people including myself laugh at someone’s dream.

I give The Disaster Artist 4 bellybutton vagina's out of 5.