''The Disaster Artist'

I just learned of ‘The Room’s’ existence this year. I haven’t seen the full movie yet, but I’ve watched countless reviews, and just random clips to say I’ve seen enough (3/4th?) to know that I would enjoy the movie. I know of the midnight showings, but I would much rather get to understanding how this movie got made, than see it in it’s entirety at the theater. (SPOONS!!!)

Anyway, this is a movie based on the book, based on the making of the movie ‘The Room’. I did not read the book either, but I’m, for some reason, drawn to the movie. Franco seems to spot on with his acting. Stands at a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes right now.

Here’s 2 trailers:

and

...and for Star Wars geeks:

Sorry for the Time Stamps in the videos… I’m trying to find out how to turn that off.

I agree the film looks interesting and well-made. I think Franco is perfect for the role because he’s not a very good actor himself.

The book is amazing, and gives a lot of insight into the utter insanity of Tommy Wiseau’s life. I’m definitely looking forward to the movie.

I do highly recommend seeing The Room, and definitely at a midnight showing. It is the best way to see it. I read The Disaster Artist almost immediately after seeing The Room because I was fascinated and had to know more. Tommy Wiseau seemed like a strange person just from watching The Room but he’s much more crazy and interesting and sad than I could have imagined.

I can’t wait for The Disaster Artist movie, some friends saw it at SXSW and said it was really great. And the reviews have been fantastic. If you are interested in seeing that movie it would probably help to have seen The Room first, although I’m sure they made TDA aware that not everyone would have seen The Room.

I’ve definitely seen most of it. I know the end. I saw Nostalgia Critics’ review that’s rundown the full movie. Many YouTube videos on top of that.

I gave watching the full movie of 'The Room’a shot, and even with all the crazy plot points that ultimately go nowhere, I think knew of most of it from all the stuff I’ve seen online. I knew most of it a little TOO well as I would often re-watch a scene from the movie wondering what in the world Tommy was thinking, along with people around him.

I’ve read bits and pieces of the book, ‘The Disaster Artist’, but I’m… not much of a “book” guy. I’ll be honest. I read all the time… Just have to delegate other hobbies, and books piss me off sometimes. In any case, I’ll be interested to hear from you folks if the movie captures enough of the book, or if it’s too “abridged”, and the book is still worth a read.

One thing I DID learn was that the movie was pretty misogynistic. No offence, but I’m definitely NOT a so-called “snowflake” when it comes to this stuff, but even I can see some of Tommy’s inner-demons when it comes to women creep into this project. It makes it more intriguing actually, but some may feel differently.

I disagree that Franko isn’t a good actor. Quite honestly… I just think he and Seth Rogen can be lazy. Perhaps a little too stoned. :slight_smile:

As much as I’m personally trying to master Tommy’s accent, from what I’ve seen of the movie so far, and what I’ve seen of Wiseau, it seems as if Franko did more than his share of homework.

I can’t tell you why this movie interests me so much. Maybe I’m kind of rooting for an “underdog”, and I don’t just mean Wiseau, I mean Greg, Franco, Rogen, and lil’ Franko. (I like it when I’m pleasantly surprised by artists who branch out). It’s also inspiring to those who dream to create something and having it mean something, (even though in this case, the intended meaning wasn’t quite expected).

If only I could save up the cash to make my own film, but the computer industry is way too competitive.

Some potentially good news: Infamous Armond White, best known as “one of the few critics to pan Toy Story 3”, reviewed the movie and gave what is effectively a ringing endorsement by declaring that I, Tonya and The Disaster Artist are “the two most hateful movies I’ve seen in 2017”.

When someone says disaster artist, I think Irwin Allen, “The Master of Disaster”.

I still think Tommy Wiseau may actually be a vampire.

I hadn’t seen The Room so I was happy about the double-feature release with The Disaster Artist.

In what I thought was ridiculous move, they played The Disaster Artist as the first movie of the double feature. Why, Lisa, why!? They should have played The Room first. Everyone betray me.

I thought The Disaster Artist was excellent. I enjoyed The Room as a companion piece but wouldn’t have enjoyed it even in a “enjoy how bad it is” kind of way on its own.

Just saw The Disaster Artist yesterday and I thought it was superb. James Franco does an excellent job at capturing the bizarre space-alien vibe of the mysterious Tommy Wiseau.

The movie focuses primarily on Greg and Tommy’s friendship and the making of The Room - a lot of the stuff from the book - mostly Greg’s trials as a struggling actor - are glossed over. Most importantly, the movie does what the book did so well: shedding some light on why out of all the terrible movies in the world, people remain so attracted and compelled by The Room. The sheer pig-headed determination and earnestness involved in its creation and promotion is somehow endearing despite the final product being terrible.

My only complaint is that the movie avoids nearly all of the darker aspects of Tommy’s personality that are explored in the book. There’s nothing about his semi-abusive/manipulative relationship with Greg, and very little about his pathological issues about his past and his super-romanticized vision of American culture. I was also disappointed that they seemed to cut out Tommy’s obsession with The Talented Mr. Ripley (just one quick reference to “Mark Damon” :D) which was a great metaphor for some of his more peculiar behaviors.

I’d really like to see the Disaster Artist. I got scared it wouldn’t live up to the hype. I like Franco and Rogen.

The Room itself, which I saw a few months ago, is meh. There are much more fun bad movies. Give me a Troll 2 or a Birdemic, please. The sex scenes in The Room were cringeworthy. Like almost nausea-inducing.

Yeah, the misogyny is bad. Hilariously bad. You can only get so offended when the dudes in the movie spend their entire social lives poorly throwing footballs at each other.

I was just getting ready to disagree, because I’m watching him in The Deuce right now and am really liking that show, but then I paused for a moment and thought, “…yeah, he IS kinda one-note in it (well, two notes, because he plays identical twin brothers, however sometimes I have difficulty even telling them apart).” So, never mind! :smiley:

Not surprisingly, he completely misses the point about Tonya, but I’m actually inclined to agree with him about this film.

In short, this aspires to be ED WOOD but doesn’t have the artistry or the compassion to pull it off, and James Franco (who is very funny in what amounts to mimicry in the lead) is certainly no Tim Burton. We’re never encouraged to laugh at Ed, but are completely immersed in his vision and artistic passion, and he is surrounded by a motley crew of true believers. But with Tommy, he remains impenetrable and so we’re with the rest of his crew, on the outside looking in at someone who is sincere but monolithically deluded. He’s a joke, if a cryptic one, and while ED WOOD had the really essential heartbeat of the Bela Lugosi character to ground the film in real emotion, there’s no one like that in DISASTER. Our surrogate (Dave Franco) is amiable enough but there’s little to hang onto with him either, so the film is mostly about the production’s ineptitude. The fact that “he made a film that people enjoy” is a meager bone that they throw in at the end but that does little to dilute the condescension and mockery that precedes it.

Whether it’s true or not (artistic license being what it is), we have a much deeper understanding of who Ed is at the end of his movie, but Tommy remains as much a mystery. So what’s the takeaway? That with a bottomless supply of money, anyone can make a terrible movie? What’s so special about that? DISASTER exists because of THE ROOM’s notoriety, not because it has anything to say about the artistic process or creative impulse.

Well, Movie Mogul, I haven’t seen the film, but that was a really good review.

I saw it last night and can see what your saying. I know even Franco compares the movie to Ed Wood, and if I were him, I wouldn’t. I didn’t think the movie was bad, but not nearly as good as I thought it would be.

I don’t know if it went down in real life like it did in the movie, but the end seemed rushed… an audience starts watching The Room thinking it’s a drama, and halfway through are uproariously laughing. Greg goes from being mortified to finding the humor in the movie in, like, seconds… Tommy walks out embarrassed to tears. Greg gives him a pep-talk for a few seconds, Tommy accepts and comes to terms that his movie’s a joke.

Just seems like there would be a lot more counseling needed to help an emotional weirdo like Tommy get over such a thing.

To his credit, he ran with it… which was the smartest thing he seemed to have done in the film/book/rl.

Bumping because I finally saw this last night. I agree this is an excellent review, and that this movie trends toward the mean-spirited.

That said, I really enjoyed it. The early scenes with Tommy as a filterless weirdo id muse for kid-Greg who wanted to break out of his timid life were so much fun. Half an hour into the movie I was thinking that Tommy is great. I want a friend who says fuck it, today’s the day to be the person you want to be.

It is sad that Tommy’s lack of talent leads him to make a widely-mocked movie, but that doesn’t make me feel bad for laughing at it.