Movie Review: The Disaster Artist (2017)

Originally published 11 December 2017 on Odyssey at https://www.theodysseyonline.com/movie-review-disaster-artist

"James Franco adapts the real-life account of the making of "The Room," but is truth already stranger than fiction?"

"The Disaster Artist," which is based on the book of the same name, details the true story of the chaotic production behind the beloved cult film "The Room." It generally follows the structure of the book, focusing on the unlikely friendship between aspiring actor Greg Sestero (played by Dave Franco) and the enigmatic Tommy Wiseau (played by James Franco, who also directs the film).

Sestero meets Wiseau in a San Francisco acting class and is immediately fascinated by his colleague's audaciously awful performances. The two men become fast friends, in large part due to Sestero's fascination with Wiseau, who is of indeterminable age and of possible Eastern European lineage (despite Wiseau's insistence that he comes from New Orleans). Wiseau eventually reveals to his friend that he owns an apartment in Los Angeles, and the duo venture out to make it in the acting business. After months without any success, Wiseau is finally inspired to circumvent the Hollywood game and make a film starring himself.

The majority of the film is presented as vignettes from the production of "The Room," with James Franco gravitating towards the more comedic occurrences from the arduous film shoot. Wiseau bumbles through the production, constantly flubbing lines and strangely insisting that the film is shot with both digital and 35mm film cameras.

As the shoot wears on long past its scheduled 40 days, tensions mount between Sestero and Wiseau, leading to a falling out. Eventually, the film is completed, and "The Disaster Artist" wraps up with an opening night screening that is not true to life but rather more convenient for the purposes of a tidy narrative conclusion.

James Franco excels as Tommy Wiseau, perfectly copying the actor's idiosyncratic speech patterns and behavioral tics. However, when considering the elements brought to screen from the book, it appears that Franco views Wiseau as more of a curiosity than a complex human being. The "Disaster Artist" book goes into much further detail of Wiseau's unruly behavior on set. There are moments in the film adaptation that address Wiseau's poor behavior, but these are largely glossed over and treated as a necessary narrative turning point for Wiseau and Sestero's falling out.

In real life, Wiseau was verbally abusive to the cast and crew.
The film only brings this up once and treats it as a joke; apparently, the audience is supposed to look past Wiseau's verbal humiliation of an actress because he does so while wearing nothing but a sock covering his genitals. If anything, that makes it worse.

When examining "The Room" in the context of the "Disaster Artist" book, it is apparent that the film comes from a place of deep hurt and insecurity in Wiseau's life. While an incompetently made film, it is clearly coming from a personal place for the director. His tantrums and abuse on the set of "The Room" reveal a man who is self-obsessed but has a fragile ego. It is a complex portrait of an endlessly strange man who is at times worthy of pity, disgust, and laughter, and sometimes all at once. The film adaptation strips this complexity down to a condescending fascination.

As director and actor, Franco seemingly wants the audience to root for Wiseau while also laughing at his misguided efforts. This is further complicated by the clumsy handling of Wiseau's on-set outbursts. The film's conclusion tries to justify the derision of a man's passion project on the grounds that "the audience is still enjoying it, just not the way you intended it, so that makes it okay." Perhaps that message could have some degree of sincerity if film's ancillary characters, such as "The Room"'s line producer Sandy (played by Seth Rogen), were not sardonically quipping about the film throughout the scenes of its production.

I believe that the film adaptation of "The Disaster Artist" had good intentions. It's a competently assembled film, but its approach is misguided; the translation to screen comes across much meaner than was probably intended. With many "so-bad-it's-good" films like "The Room," it is all too easy to take schadenfreude in riffing on and ripping apart bad films. However, in the case of "The Room," such mocking glee seems a bit cruel. For all his faults, Tommy Wiseau wanted to make a film that expressed his feelings to the world. The "Disaster Artist" book attempts an objective view of a truly unique filmmaker. The movie version prefers to look at Wiseau as a freak show curiosity.

It makes me wonder: if truth is stranger than fiction, why try to fictionalize an already fascinating nonfiction account? If the post-credits reenactments of various scenes from "The Room" is any indication, this movie may just exist because James Franco just wanted to show off his (admittedly pretty great) Tommy Wiseau impression.

Rating: 5/10