Actor James Franco, acts,
writes and directs, along with his real life brother Dave Franco and his best
buddy Seth Rogan in the offbeat satirical and very funny film called “The
Disaster Artist”. A true story about a mysterious man with unusually long black
hair and an indiscernible accent named Tommy Wiseau who in 2003 made one of the
worst reviewed movies ever grossing only $1,800 dollars, only to eventually have it evolve into one the greatest
cult classic’s about “how not to make a movie” called “THE ROOM”. For 14 straight years “THE ROOM” has been currently playing
in theaters in most major cities at least one night a week as a testament to
its unintended fame.
PLOT: At
the start of the film we see principally only two characters, Tommy (James
Franco) and his best friend Greg Sestero (Dave Franco), a 19 year old who is aspiring
to be a full time actor. Both Tommy and Greg are studying together in a San
Francisco based acting class when one day the Director admonishes Greg in class
as being simply not good enough to be a serious working actor in Hollywood.
Frustrated by the criticism Greg
reaches out to Tommy as someone he sees in his class through his improvisational
but very strange performances as genuinely fearless and passionate about his
work. Agreeing to help Greg, on a whim Tommy offers Greg to simply move in with
him as his roommate so as (maybe) together they can inspire each other to
getting the kind of real acting work they both dream of achieving.
But after several months of
endless rejections, Greg during a flippant and dismissive moment at humor
suggests to Tommy that he should make his own movie. Tommy sees this as a real epiphany
moment to making his dreams come true to being like his iconic film hero James Dean.
So he goes off not only to writing a screenplay, but also financing his entire film
at the cost of $6M with a bunch of no named actors in his story “THE ROOM”. A plot that centers a banker named Johnny, a man who has it all;
great friends, a good job, and a gorgeous fiancée named Lisa , but who also has
a scheme on her part of manipulating and
tearing Johnny apart for her own selfish needs while at the same time allowing herself
to being seduced by Johnny’ best friend Mark.
REVIEW: Besides
being completely off beat and hysterical funny at the same time, ‘The Disaster Artist”
ultimately is a sweet homage to all of the countless actors who went to
Hollywood with huge dreams that quickly failed; giving up, never to be heard of
again. But not Tommy. Franco’s film is essentially
about Tommy Wiseau as a sweet tribute to both him as a person as well as to the
idea of personal perseverance, along with what constitutes a real friendship
and overall being truly passionate about something you genuinely believe it, no
matter how many people make fun or criticize you.
While there are moments in the
film that most casual film viewers will find as either weird, emotionally uncomfortable,
even bizarre to contemplate, it wasn’t for me.
“The Disaster Artist” worked for all of its 1:45 minutes running time as
it apparently did for the viewing audience who laughed out loud, seemingly
enjoying this effort throughout as I did. But not so much as a film to make light
of Tommy’s naivety, but more at the brilliance of James Franco superb acting
talent playing skillfully about a man with no talent for acting while trying to
act in the film with horrible acting (get it). Franco makes the full arc of
Tommy’s story a fabulous tale that is sincere and honest even in the midst of watching
Tommy’s direct his film rooted almost daily in some form of chaos and endless production
disasters.
There is a great visual scene
in “The Disaster Artist” film where Franco’s Tommy is seen shooting a scene in his
making of “The Room” film that was supposed to be about Tommy having sex with
his girlfriend in the movie. Tommy is so completely bad at acting that he is even
horrible simulating having sex, as it looked more like some naked rhythm-less uncoordinated
man humping a concrete building. Brought me to tears.
James Franco will almost
certainly be nominated for Best Actor and deservedly so as his “The Disaster
Artist” makes Tommy someone you totally root for. And if you should see this
and you conclude that Tommy is a bit of a head case, as well as you deem his
acting as unbearable to watch or you conclude that at times he seems more like
a child stuck in a man’s body, it nevertheless is truly one of the more imaginative
original pieces of film making you will see with genuine hilarity and genuine heart
about a successful and yet unknown actor named Tommy Wiseau's who’s eccentricity
and bad acting was an illuminating joy to watch.
3.50 Stars
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