I remember the first time I watched The Room.
I was a freshman in college, freshly introduced to reddit and bumming off of my parents’ Netflix account (at a point in time when getting DVDs directly shipped to you one at a time was the highest form of entertainment). I excitedly ordered The Room, crouched alone in my dorm room, watching it on my laptop. It was not the most … optimal viewing experience (mirroring my experience watching Rocky Horror Picture Show for the first time), but the charm remained. I was watching something special, something I couldn’t describe, which was oddly refreshing.
The charm and legacy of The Room is hard to put into words and The Disaster Artist stumbles early by trying to do so. In order to provide a quick primer for Wisseau-novices, the movie opens with montage of real celebrities repeating accolades about the the original. It is slightly odd when compared to the entirety of the movie, which picks up the pace quickly when it sends Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) to Los Angeles with his new, quirky roommate, Tommy (James Franco).
The Disaster Artist shines with these interactions between the Franco brothers, who both convincingly portray two actors just trying to live out their Hollywood dreams. This relationship is the heart of the movie, despite all of its ridiculousness: it is a true brotherhood between two completely different men. In some scenes, however, it is hard to take James Franco seriously, his typical stoner personality shining through his Tommy make-up.
The film tells the tale of the making of The Room, taking the audience to the set (with crew members Seth Rogen and Paul Scheer) and letting some of the most famous aspects of Sestero’s tell-all book play out on the big screen (the infamous sex scene and breast cancer “subplot” both get extended screen time, while other famous bits of Wisseau lore also get hinted at or briefly mentioned). It is a real treat for long-time fans to see this portrayed.
But, as if it is unsure about its own merit as a film, The Disaster Artist attempts to shoe-horn a lot of one-off characters throughout its relatively short run time, played by a cast that you would expect to see in The Interview or This is the End, some only appearing in one scene. While it may be immediately hilarious to see famous celebrities show up (actors like Zac Efron, Hannibal Burress, Bryan Cranston) it is relatively jarring when compared to the rest of the movie, making it feel more like an extended Funny or Die parody than an actual movie. (My reactionary comparison when I left the theatre was the odd similarity between the movie and one of my favorite internet videos: the Weird Al biopic trailer.)
It is a very well-paced film, brisk in its delivery of the story, laden with jokes and pathos. It is a lesser version of Ed Wood, but it still remains a fun piece of cinema. This story of the making of the worst movie ever made is very worthy of its own film and, for the most part, it really delivers an enjoyable hour-and-a-half retelling. But through it all, however, The Disaster Artist never reaches the charm of the movie it is chronicling. Indeed, probably the biggest laughs of the screening came during side-by-side comparisons of scenes from the original.
For moviegoers who had never seen the original movie or who have never heard of Tommy Wisseau (which I assume is a fairly large subset of the population), this movie may not quite land. But for fans of the original, whether those who throw their own spoons or watch in on dorm room laptops, The Disaster Artist is a worthy addition to the Planet Tommy mythology.
Rating (for people who have never seen The Room):
Rating (for fans of The Room):
Photos by Justina Mintz, courtesy of A24
