The Disaster Artist

Dir: James Franco

2017

****

The Disaster Artist is a great concept and a very unique tribute of sorts to one of the worst films ever made. Tommy Wiseau's 2003 TheRoom is now infamous in its awfulness and has amassed a huge cult following – mainly thanks to Wiseau's outlandish acting, the film’s bizarre narrative and one of the oddest scripts ever written. The film is based on Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell's non-fiction book of the same name that chronicles the making of The Room – Sestero being one of the film’s leading actors, and journalist Bissell writing a few pieces about the film when it was first released. James Franco was a fan of the film and decided to make the book into a film as soon as he read it, casting himself as Tommy Wiseau and his brother Dave Franco as Greg Sestero. It’s only really when you know the story behind the film that you begin to realise what the film is about and how it all came together. James Franco is actually mentioned in the book and he and Wiseau are passionate about the work of James Dean. Wiseau actually said years before The Disaster Artist was an idea that if a film were ever made about him he’d either want Johnny Depp or James Franco to play him, Franco’s performance as James Dean in 2002’s Sonny being one of his favorites and an inspiration to make his own film. Both Wiseau and Greg Sestero gave the film their blessing, even though it doesn’t quite tell the real story and only shows half of what really happened. Weirdly, it actually makes a few things up – such as Sestero missing out on a chance to star in Malcolm in the Middle – which never actually happened. What it does do well however is address the bigger questions and explores The Room’s greatest hits – all those bizarre scenes that made the film a cult hit in the first place. Some of the frame for frame re-shoots are near perfect copies and in this film he get the joy of seeing the reactions of those who were behind the camera at the time. This is the film at its best. For example, the awkward sex scene between Wiseau’s Johnny and Juliette Danielle’s Lisa is best remembered for his leathery backside bobbing up and down. It is unpleasant and questionable when you first watch it. It’s well known now that he insisted upon it, suggesting that his ass was going to sell the film but what viewers might not have known is that the crew kicked-off when it happened and many an angry word was shouted. It was a treat watching each actor in turn ask why their characters were saying the things they were and why the film suddenly stops following their story-lines. Wiseau had money but he didn’t have a clue, so as a crew member you did as you were told or you left. When the paychecks actually cleared, the crew stayed on, even when the forty-day shoot took the best part of a year. It was fascinating to learn that one of the film’s most infamous scenes, that included the immortal lines: “I did not hit her, it’s not true! It’s Bullshit! I did not hit her. I did not…… Oh, hi Mark.”, took around fifty takes to get right because Wiseau couldn’t remember the lines – even though he wrote them. I very much doubt Seth Rogen looks or sounds anything like scriptwriter and eventual uncredited director Sandy Schklair but there is something golden about hearing him mumble all the questions that audiences had been asking themselves all these years. It is odd for a film to recount the making of a film that wasn’t made that long ago when all the main players are still around. I would say that none of them resembled the original actors, although they got all the lines right and sounded a bit like them. It didn’t matter too much though, as this film really only had to get Wiseau right. I personally wouldn’t have cast James Franco, he would have been one of the last actors to have crossed my mind, but he does an amazing job of it. He looks and sounds as close to Wiseau as you could possibly get and the film really is all about him and his performance. It’s nice to see a film with two brothers in the main roles but it was a bit tough on Dave really, as his character isn’t half as interesting as Wiseau. The comedy is handled well and in all honesty the film is clearly a heartfelt tribute to The Room and all involved are obviously big fans. I still think the parts of the real story that they changed were unnecessarily interfered with and the fake interviews with J. J. Abrams, Lizzy Caplan, Kristen Bell, Keegan-Michael Key, Adam Scott, Danny McBride, Angelyne, Kevin Smith and Ike Barinholtz brought nothing to the film other than false interest in the films promotion but I get it, they were filming in LA, why not take advantage. Even though it didn’t really happen, I also liked the Bryan Cranston scene, if only to see him as Malcolm’s dad again. I think one’s interest in this film really will depend on whether you have seen The Room and/or understand how the ‘So bad its good’ cult phenomena works and/or are a believer. It’s a great character piece though and a hilarious true-ish story.