In honour of James Franco’s upcoming film release of The Disaster Artist, I figured I had to take a look back at where this film actually started, and that meant watching The Room (2003). The Disaster Artist is a dramatization of The Room.
The Room is written, directed, produced and stars Tommy Wiseau and is 99 minutes in length. It is reputed to be the greatest terrible movie of all time, a title that in itself may need a little examination. Ready or not, here we go.
Now, as you can imagine I have seen a lot of terrible movies; terrible movies are a staple of anyone who would even claim to be a film critic. Be it Ninja-Cheerleaders-from-Mars terrible or Independence-Day-2 terrible, there is a metric for bad movies. You see, some movies work like a clock, that they can be so bad that they hit a magical sweet spot spinning past the 12 and become something new and amazing all over again.
Other movies are just so boring, or confusing or frustrating that you want to shut them off and walk away.
The Room falls into our first category, and it is like no movie I have ever seen before. Everything is wrong: the line delivery, the blocking, the lighting, the continuity, the terrible, undefinable accent of Tommy Wiseau – none of it works; yet that somehow makes it work.
This movie is like watching a train wreck, you can’t stop watching it; from the first line delivered you are captivated just wondering how long this can go and it does, each scene delves deeper into a rabbit hole of problems that just build on the previous ones, hoping beyond hope that eventually you will just give up and accept that what you’re seeing is normal.
The plot – for lack of better term – is a meandering series of events that take place in the lives or our leads “Johnny,” “Mark” and “Lisa.” The story is about how Mark and Lisa are cheating on Johnny, a rather simple premise, but the movie finds a way to complicate it.
The events of the picture don’t make sense in relation to themselves. Often times entire plot points are brought up, such as Lisa’s mother declaring she has cancer and is dying, only to never have those points addressed or brought up again.
The movie speaks about domestic abuse, and drug deals gone wrong and an attempted murder of a friend while high in a way that these things all happen, but no one brings them up again after or is concerned about them even as they are happening.
The cast of the movie feels like they were all heavily sedated before they started shooting, as there is no energy or emotion or… anything really that could make you believe that these people exist.
So I know what you’re thinking, “Dave, this movie sounds horrible, why are you recommending it to us?” and that is just the point… it is horrible and I don’t know why I am recommending it; but mark my words there is something special about The Room. There is some amazing vortex where it exists in a bizarro land that everything is the opposite of what it should be, and that is somehow strangely comforting.
Is the movie any good…?
No, not at all, not even a little bit.
Is the movie entertaining…?
Yes, it most certainly is. This is the perfect movie to watch with a group of friends and laugh together as you rip it apart.
This movie gets nothing, no stars, no thumbs, it just is. The Room can be found on Amazon Prime and seen in select screenings in larger cities Outside. For more information on screenings, visit the website www.theroommovie.com.
