A Review of "The Disaster Artist"

Holy crap. What a movie. I went into this, having been a fan of "movies about making movies", with Ed Wood being my favorite. This movie was no exception to a contender of my favorite. It was fun, humorous, human, spectacular, and most of all; it was entertaining like most movies today aren't.

For those who don't know, The Disaster Artist is a movie directed by James Franco based on the book out by Greg Sestero. Sestero is most famous for starring in The Room, the world's most notorious and fun-loving cult film. Often considered one of the worst movies ever made, The Room's theatrical run is only rivaled by that of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, both of which have obtained this "cult status" and air all over the country at "midnight movie" screenings. The Room is a movie produced by, written by, directed by and starring Tommy Wiseau. It was until very recently that a lot about Tommy Wiseau was kept secret. Nobody knew how old he was, where he came from, or where his vast amounts of wealth had come from to fund the movie. Nowadays, The Room is one of the most recognizable movies on the internet. It has become memes, its clunky dialogue has become memes, its goofish acting has become memes; The Room was a movie made to be an internet trend. We'll do a review of The Room another time.

L: James Franco as Tommy Wiseau
R: The REAL Tommy Wiseau

The Disaster Artist is the story of Greg Sestero (Dave Franco), who befriends a foolish, difficult-to-understand man of undeterminable origins named Tommy Wiseau (James Franco). Both of them are in an acting class in San Francisco. They both make a pact over a humorous impromptu acting session in a diner to move to Los Angeles and get their acting careers up and running. Greg gets to join an acting agency and even meets a beautiful bartender who becomes his girlfriend, all while Tommy struggles to get anything up and running. When Greg's career stalls, he and Tommy deduce on the rooftop that they need to make their own movie. Tommy then spends the next several months writing the script of an all-American man who has it all, who gets betrayed by the world when his best friend sleeps with his fiancee. Tommy then somehow self-funds his project with Greg, The Room. They purchase cameras from a studio that rents them, Tommy hires an entire crew after they only introduce themselves, Tommy has the actresses auditioning for Lisa do stupid things in their interview, like ride horses and play saxophone.

As the shoot goes on, Tommy becomes increasingly enraged as he hears people on the set ridiculing his work and his methodology, which all leads to an explosion on set when a naked Tommy, ready to shoot his sex scene, criticizes Juliette Danielle's (Ari Graynor) skin for being "too ugly for Hollywood", which causes a lot of crew to intervene and a screaming match takes place. Tommy calms down and apologizes, but the cast and crew later become angry when Tommy doesn't pay for air-conditioning, leading to Carolyn Minnott (Jacki Weaver), who plays Lisa's mom Claudette in the movie, faints on set due to the hate. Against all odds, the movie is finished and a premiere is held at a small theater in LA. Tommy drives by with Greg in the car, sees that there isn't very many people out front, so he drives around the block...much to everyone's confusion. Tommy then pulls up again, gets out after some begrudging, and joins everyone in the theater for the premiere. The movie starts out as a serious drama but as the it wears on, people start inadvertently laughing at the movie more and more and more. Tommy becomes enraged and upset as the laughter becomes more uproarious and boisterous, and soon leaves the premiere in a huff. Greg, who was also laughing, joins him in the lobby and talks him into going back in, saying that he's getting a response to the movie like none they've ever seen before. They open the door to go back in and watch the audience cheer and rave like crazy as Johnny, played by Wiseau, kills himself in The Room's climactic ending. Tommy then returns to the front stage of the auditorium and exclaims that he hopes "everyone enjoyed his comedy film". The rest of the movie shows anecdotes about what the cast of The Room has been up to since th release of the heinous picture.

The movie felt very real. Not only because it was based around actual events that took place but because the emotions of wanting to succeed were greatly conveyed. There were some generally uncomfortable scenes due to the characters' desperation to succeed in Hollywood. There's a scene in a restaurant in Hollywood when Tommy gets to meet famous producer/director Judd Apatow (playing himself). Judd becomes violently angry at Tommy interrupting his dinner and lashes out at him, telling him that "he'll never become an actor in a million years, and not even after that". It is through this scene that Tommy becomes discouraged with his dream. Throughout the movie, it's normally Greg questioning his presence and whether or not anything he's doing is worth it, but here it's Tommy who decides to feel dismay and discouragement toward his dreams. Greg has to remind him to stick with it and it is here in this scene that the two conceive the idea to make their own movie. I feel like the desperation to be famous in real-life was quite the trial of struggle for Wiseau, as he just isn't as good looking as Sestero, which is another point of capture in the movie. There are scenes were Tommy feels jealous as we get the feeling Greg's acting career is taking off whereas his is not. The best part about all this is in real life, during this movie's promotion just prior to its release, James Franco was on Jimmy Kimmel and he brought the real Tommy Wiseau with him onto the show, who to my knowledge had never been on any talk show before. That, to me, was the "He made it" moment.

Tommy directing a scene? Or James Franco directing a scene?

James Franco fuckin' steals the show as Tommy Wiseau. You wouldn't think an actor like James Franco, known for making low-brow comedy flicks that don't have much thought behind the dialogue and scenarios, would be worth a consideration for Oscar gold, but this is it. This could be it. The genius behind it is that it feels like Franco didn't put much into his performance, but it still came out so genuine. It is very reminiscent of Martin Landau playing Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood. You tend to forget that that isn't Tommy Wiseau on the screen. James Franco makes you think that that is Tommy Wiseau on the screen, from his laugh to his deadpan look to his slurred, Polish-like accent as he jovially teases someone or pushes them to be better performers. James's brother Dave plays Greg Sestero, and with James as Tommy, commands each scene they're in. The scene where Tommy is becoming verbally and emotionally abusive to the other members of cast & crew while he's trying to shoot his sex scene, you get to see Dave and James act out potentially violent confrontations between these two characters so well. Hey, even James Franco's good buddy Seth Rogen is in this movie, and he's actually doing what he did in Jobs; playing an intelligent character with intelligent, yet humorous dialogue. I have a love-hate relationship with Seth Rogen. I enjoy his dumbass characters but I also get annoyed with them to the point where I feel like he needs more characters like this.

I actually didn't know that the actor who plays Chris R., the character who holds Denny up for money in the movie, was played in this movie by Zac Efron. It was just one of those crazy celebrity cameos that took place. Plus, Bryan Cranston plays himself. He meets Greg Sestero in a diner and offers him a small role on Malcolm in the Middle as a lumberjack as long as he doesn't shave his beard. Greg takes this news to Tommy, who refuses to reschedule the shoot to allow Greg to keep his beard for the Malcolm shoot. Tommy demands that Greg chooses between The Room and his guest role on Malcolm in the Middle. The next shot is Greg getting his beard shaved on the set of The Room with a look of absolute despair. Heartbreaking stuff, but it shows Greg's commitment to Tommy, who gave him his first break by allowing him to star in this movie. Considering the scene where Tommy first gives Greg the script to read in the diner, Greg's face clearly demonstrates his disbelief in this project, though he saves face and tells Tommy that the script is good.

I like how a lot of Tommy's common phrases eventually became lines the script. There were parts in the movie where Tommy says "keep your <something> in your pocket", which is a notoriously goofy line that's said by Greg Sestero in the actual movie. You get to see at the end of the movie the cast of The Disaster Artist's version of The Room act their scenes side-by-side with actual footage from the original The Room. I hope on the Blu-ray there's an actual, shot-for-shot remake of The Room starring James Franco's cast. That'd be the funniest fuckin' thing on the planet, considering all the clips we were given in the end credits.

Tommy Wiseau posing with a poster for The Disaster Artist

The idea behind how The Room was made was so fascinating to me. I never understood because Tommy Wiseau played Johnny as such a kind, gentle soul on screen that you never would have guessed that he would be a tyrant behind the camera. This movie brings so much into light and it also brings The Room back into the mainstream. I was just watching a YouTube video last night after I got home from the movie and an ad had two guys trying to sell me something, but they were standing in front of a crummy green screen, one dressed as Mark and one dressed as Johnny, both tossing a football around. Several years ago, no one would've made an ad basing themselves off of characters from The Room. My only hope now is that Tommy Wiseau appears in dealership commercials or a Super Bowl ad. He and Greg Sestero both. I doubt the entire cast would want to have a reunion, considering the turmoil that went on behind the scenes, but who knows? Maybe they made up by now.

The Disaster Artist is the best movie of 2017, in my opinion. It was well-acted, well-directed, and a perfect addition to the "movies about making movies" genre. James Franco was phenomenal playing Tommy Wiseau, so much so to the point that you forget it isn't actually Tommy Wiseau up on the screen. The rest of the cast members look exactly like the cast of The Room that they're supposed to play, and scenarios that show how actual scenes were filmed were priceless. The infamous rooftop "I deed naht heet hurr" scene is depicted as being painfully awful to shoot, taking near-seventy takes for Wiseau to get the lines right. I enjoyed this movie start to finish, and I cannot wait for it to come out on Blu-ray so I can watch it again and again. I just may officially induct it into my own personal "Motion Picture Hall of Fame". It was that great. I recommend it, then if you haven't seen The Room before, go watch it after you watch this. The Room is one of those movies that you have to see to believe, and The Disaster Artist is the perfect movie about it. I laughed and got emotionally involved from beginning to end. Go see it. You'll love it.