The Disaster Artist

If you've heard of The Disaster Artist and decided to watch it, but haven't seen The Room then STOP! Quit reading, rent that movie and watch it before you continue. The Disaster Artist cannot be fully appreciated without having first seen The Room.

The Disaster Artist is the story of the creation of the "worst movie ever made". It's more than just a documentation of past events taken from the memoirs of one of it's leads, though, it's a heartwarming, comedic film about two friends chasing their dreams. But most importantly it tells the much anticipated story of how a strange and mysterious man with a poor grasp on English, badly attempting to interact normally with human beings, writes and portrays a character with a poor grasp on English, badly attempting to interact with other humans beings. To watch this movie without any previous knowledge or context, it could be easily believed to be about an alien befriending a human trying to fit into earthling society. Seriously, I challenge you to rewatch it with that in mind and see if tell I'm wrong!

The story follows Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) a down on his luck actor with trouble expressing himself on stage, who befriends Tommy Wiseau (James Franco) an inexplicably wealthy man with a similar gusto for acting, an over abundance of expression on stage, an inexplicable accent, and less talent that an old shoe. Tommy helps Greg be more vibrant in his performances and gives him the confidence he needs to chase success and together they decide to risk it all in Los Angeles and make real actors of themselves. When they hit every roadblock imaginable to getting into show business, Tommy decides that he is just going to make his own movie and cast himself and Greg as the leads.

   The movie that they make, The Room is a confusing, nonsensical smattering of incoherent plot threads, drawing randomly from what Tommy perceives as real life experiences. Throughout his movie there are plot lines that are brought up once and never addressed again, characters who behave like different people one scene to the next, and a full progression of events that never culminate into a discernible plot. The performance by each and every person in The Room is as laughable as the lines and come together to make the most brilliant piece of terrible film ever created. This is well portrayed in The Disaster Artist, showing not only the utter confusion it put the people on set through, but also the comedic reality of Tommy Wiseau and his complete eccentricity and lack of normal functioning as a human being.

   Greg, though initially thrilled about the movie, finds himself conflicted by his relationship and desire to do more in his career. He is more than willing to juggle it all, but Tommy feels that his friend is pulling away from him and panics, becoming even more of a terror than usual on set. He hinders Greg's plans at every turn and eventually gets the result he feared just as they finish filming. Greg leaves and spends the next few years trying to make it as a small time stage performer until he gets the invitation to the premier of The Room. Tommy begs him to go and Greg agrees, tentatively. Of course the premier does not go as Tommy hoped, the audience starting off confused and a little horrified and eventually laughing uncontrollably at the antics on screen that they perceive to be purposefully comedic. Tommy is crushed, but Greg encourages him to see the good in what was happening, after all he'd made a movie on his own and was getting a reaction most filmmakers would have killed for. The two friends are finally able to rekindle their friendship and together they celebrate their accomplishment, accepting it for what it is.

The Disaster Artist was bar far a bromance story; it's main focal point being the relationship between Tommy and Greg and the struggles they went through together. Though it was a real, full friendship, neither were always good at being friends to each other, Greg often feeling embarrassed by Tommy- rightfully so as he was not only creepy, but had zero idea of how to behave towards other people - and of course Tommy putting their movie over their friendship on multiple occasions. It was really about the growth, downfall, and rekindling of a great and confusing friendship. Certainly heartwarming in that sense and incredibly entertaining all the way through by their antics and interactions. 

It had a good message too, not only to be unstoppable in pursuing your dreams, but also to learn to accept when it comes to something other than what was desired. The movie wasn't what Tommy expected and though he took it quite seriously it was crushing for him to see that those watching it didn't see it in the same way that he did. But it did bring them all an immense amount of joy, which he had to come to realize was just as good. It was a strong show of development as a character to take the reaction he got with as much grace as he did and to accept the good that came from it, even if it wasn't the good that he expected.

With a full cast of recognizable faces and cameos, the portrayals by everyone involved, most especially by James Franco, were simply uncanny. It was sometimes hard to remember that Franco wasn't the real Tommy Wiseau, somehow able to capture the real man's identity down to the quirky eye, odd mannerisms and incomprehensible speech. When he was on screen I couldn't look away; he took over every scene with his presence. Getting to see Dave and James Franco play opposite each other is a personal dream come true, as well. Their chemistry was natural and real and fully entertaining.

Much of the humor is certainly off meta, but any fan of The Room could easily pick up and appreciate it. The speculations on Tommy Wiseau's origins, age and source of income plague the movie like they plague his real life fans. The side by side reels of the movie that they created in The Disaster Artist put next to footage from The Room are as close as they could be and almost indiscernible at times. Every topic of interest, issue, and inside joke about his terrible, wonderful film are addressed in The Disaster Artist. It plays to its fans wisely, not afraid to give the audience what it wants.

Though it's main downfall as a film is that it would be difficult to appreciate by anyone who hasn't seen The Room, I can say that by far it was an excellent movie, not just from the perspective of a fan. Taking away the cult classic in question it remains a comedic drama about two friends reaching for the stars, slipping, but finding the stars in places that they never expected.