"Visions are worth fighting for. Why spend your life making someone else's dreams?"
The above is a quote from the wonderful Tim Burton film Ed Wood in which famed terrible director Ed Wood (Johnny Depp, before he was the caricature he is today) meets with Orson Welles (played by Vincent D'Onofrio). Wood is about to give up his directing dreams when Welles tells him to believe in himself. The joke is, of course, that Wood is essentially the polar opposite of Welles in terms of talent. But the quote has always stuck with me as a pure-hearted bon mot in a cynical world. Even if you're a no-talent hack, you still have a right to your dreams.
In order to appreciate James Franco's film The Disaster Artist, you first need to know what The Room is. Here is the Wikipedia entry for it and here are some options for where to watch The Room, or at least clips of it.
But to give you the elevator pitch, The Room is a 2003 film written, directed, produced, and starring a man name Tommy Wiseau. The Room has achieved cult status for how absolutely awful it is on every count: the actors are wooden, the script is terrible, and the plot is thin. But the cult behind the room would be nothing without the mystery of Wiseau--a man with a seemingly bottomless bank account, a bizarre accent, and dreams that stretch far beyond his talent.
Unlike Ed Wood, who was an all-American man (who, incidentally, enjoyed wearing women's clothing) with optimism and goofy charm, Wiseau is pretty much an asshole by all accounts. He bullied nearly everyone on the set of The Room, refusing to buy water for the cast and crew even at the peak of summer and calling the moles on his lead actress's body "disgusting". These revelations came to light in a memoir co-written by Greg Sestero, Wiseau's friend and second lead actor in The Room. That memoir is titled The Disaster Artist and it is the basis for this film, directed and starring James Franco. A rather strange actor/director/writer/producer in his own right, Franco is pretty much the perfect auteur to take on this project.
The Disaster Artist opens in 1998 San Francisco where Wiseau and Sestero meet in an acting class. Where Sestero is conventionally good-looking but timid onstage, Wiseau looks, acts, and dresses bizarrely but is absolutely fearless in the class. Well, that or crazy. But we all know that there is a thin line between madness and genius.
Sestero and Wiseau become friends and eventually Wiseau convinces Sestero to move with him to Los Angeles and make a real effort to pursue acting. Sestero agrees and they move to an apartment Wiseau already owns. The fact that this man owns apartments in both San Francisco and LA is mind-boggling to Sestero--how does he have all this money? To make matters more mysterious, Wiseau claims to be from Louisiana although he clearly has an Eastern European accent. And he refuses to tell Sestero how old he is. When pushed, he claims to be Sestero's age: early 20s. The man is OBVIOUSLY at least two decades older, but won't cop to it. What's up with this guy?
After multiple rejections, Wiseau decides to make his own movie and give himself the starring role and Sestero the second lead. The movie, titled The Room, is about Johnny, an "all-American hero" in Wiseau's words, who is betrayed by his girlfriend who sleeps with his best friend, Mark (played by Sestero). Through sheer force of will and with a little help from the apparently millions of dollars Wiseau inexplicably has in his bank account, he gets the film made and released.
Franco cast dozens of actors and comedians for The Disaster Artist. No role is too small. Ari Graynor plays Juliette Danielle, who plays "Lisa" in The Room, the unfortunate young woman who had to endure a sex scene with Tommy Wiseau. Seth Rogen plays Sandy Schklair, the script supervisor. Additionally, for you Room-heads:
Josh Hutcherson plays Philip Haldiman, aka "Denny"
Nathan Fielder plays Kyle Vogt, aka "Peter"
Jackie Weaver plays Carolyn Minnott, aka "Claudette" (the one who "definitely has breast cancer")
Zac Efron plays Dan Janjigian, aka "Chris-R"
Oh, and all three hosts of the podcast How Did This Get Made?--Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas are in the movie.
Oh, and why not throw Sharon Stone, Melanie Griffith, Hannibal Buress, Allison Brie, Bryan Cranston, Megan Mullally, Charlene Yi, and fuckin' Bob Odenkirk in there as well? Seriously, all of Hollywood got a paycheck from this movie. Hell, I visited LA for a couple days this year, so I expect my royalties check to come in the mail any day now.
Seeing huge stars in tiny roles playing terrible actors working with a terrible script is part of the fun of The Disaster Artist. The film is less of a compelling and accurate tribute to Wiseau (they definitely downplayed his weirdness and on-set abuse, most likely to have his permission to the rights to his story) and more of a meta-comedy about fame and movie-making. Some folks have suggested that The Disaster Artist is "Oscar worthy" and I personally do not agree. It's a funny, good movie that speaks almost exclusively to fans of The Room (I can't imagine what people who have not seen The Room and walk into this movie blind will make of it) but it's not a masterpiece. In my opinion.
Even though it falls back on buddy-comedy tropes (Sestero and Wiseau have a massive falling out, but make up in the end), The Disaster Artist is great fun and pretty darn hilarious. I definitely recommend it to fans of The Room. For people who haven't seen The Room, I actually *do not* recommend seeing The Disaster Artist...yet.
First: Watch The Room "dry" just to familiarize yourself with the movie and how uniquely awful it is.
Then: See The Room during a midnight screening that includes audience participation. This is The Room in its truest and ideal habitat.
Bonus: Read The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell to understand the full story and insider's perspective behind the making of The Room
And then you're allowed to watch The Disaster Artist. If you see The Disaster Artist without fully appreciating the story behind it, you might find yourself saying
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