The Disaster Artist (2017): A suprisingly funny, dramatic, entertaining, inspiring, well-acted and directed story about the worst film ever made!
Oh hai fellow reader!! Sorry this is a little late, but I've been quite busy with some other work.
The Disaster Artist tells the true story of Tommy Wiseau (played by James Franco) and his friendship with Greg Sestero (played by Dave Franco) which then led to their making of the cult film The Room, widely considered to be one of the worst films ever made. This movie is based off the book of the same name written by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell.
The Room was first released in 2003, but had found its audience over the years through many midnight screenings because of its terribleness due to its awful script, illogic narrative flaws, and hilariously bad performances. At these screenings, people have memorized famous lines from the film and thrown plastic spoons at the screen whenever a spoon-related image would come up, thus providing a very unique viewing experience.
I was excited to see The Disaster Artist because I was intrigued by the trailers and its overall premise surrounding this phenomenal mystery of modern film history, but I wasn't sure what exactly to expect. After I saw The Disaster Artist last month, I instantly wanted to rewatch it again because this is one of the most funniest and one of the best films of 2017!
First off, James Franco is fantastic as Tommy Wiseau. He perfectly nails Wiseau's impression not just by his look, but the way he talks and his general mannerisms. Initially, I thought the whole movie was just James Franco making a joke out of Wiseau by doing a fake impersonation. But after the first 5 minutes, he blends into the role because he appreciates who this person was in real life and his relationship with the people around him. The first scene of the film takes place during an acting class where Greg is struggling to act out a scene from a Tennessee Williams' play and Tommy then volunteers to act it out instead. Franco just explodes onto screen by fully expressing how technically horrible Tommy is at enacting the play, but also showing a sense of passion to his craft and the courage he has to showcase himself. This connects to how Franco adds a human layer to Tommy Wiseau's mystery nature mainly through his common ambition of wanting to be a successful person in Hollywood but being constantly rejected in acting classes and auditions.
Dave Franco was also really good as Greg Sestero because he is ultimately the "audience character" for people to relate to instantly. He also has the simple ambition to make it big in Hollywood, but is unsuccessful and often questions what his dreams and aspirations of acting even are. When he first meets Tommy, he is in pure shock at Tommy's courage and passion for his dream, thus adding to their deep friendship and feeling of brotherhood (quite literally, since the actors are brothers).
Both James and Dave have excellent chemistry and are able to sell their relationship properly to the audience based on how well they work together as brothers which translates into the strong bond that Wiseau and Sestero had throughout their lives.
James Franco also did a great job directing the film and making sure this crazy story was handled in a proper and careful manner. The reports about him directing it in character as Tommy with his accent + talking mannerisms manifest even more to the level of commitment that Franco put into this project and how much he cares about telling this unique story about a movie that's become a major form of unintentional comedy and a cult classic.
Even the supporting characters were pretty good. Seth Rogen and Paul Scheer play the script-supervisors and cinematographers of The Room and the way their reaction how Tommy is managing the crew and how he wants certain scenes from The Room to be acted out is just hilarious. There are also a ton of celebrity cameos in the first 5 minutes talking about the influence of The Room, noteworthy actors representing Hollywood elite figures at the time, and Josh Hutcherson and Zac Efron playing The Room characters and acting out their scenes.
The film gives a nice insight into different roles of a film crew (make-up artist, company sponsors, agents, etc) while showing how Tommy + Greg broke any norms in the filmmaking business established to make their own creation, causing the entire cast + crew to be baffled by how this movie even got made and what their job is.
This makes for great comedic timing when the actors are recreating famous scenes from The Room (which by the way, they did an amazing job at precisely matching the overall aesthetics and the original actors' movements). But there is also a lot of dramatic heft to this story as it displays a character who's a complete mystery and is simply determined to accomplish his dream of becoming a successful director. This makes it even more heartbreaking when Tommy slowly begins to realize that his ambition isn't getting the results he hoped for initially, before witnessing an unexpected form of success from the The Room's instant cult status. I liked the new spin it provided on the "American dream" story, despite the fact that the actual creation didn't turn out out the way the makers intended it. All of this is due to the witty dialogues + excellent script that has a clever balance of drama and comedy.
As far as content goes, there really isn't much to worry about. The characters do curse often and there is a small scene involving a male rear end, but this movie should be fine for ages 14+.
Now, do you have to watch The Room to enjoy The Disaster Artist? I don't necessarily think so because The Disaster Artist gives enough context for audiences who haven't seen The Room to understand the concept and who the characters are, while still providing an interesting background for Room fans to understand and further appreciate. If you haven't seen The Room, I don't blame you (trust me, watching that movie alone is like getting stabbed in the head 50 times).
The Disaster Artist is a very entertaining, hilarious, and unexpectedly inspiring film with a powerful story of friendship + creativity at its core. I highly recommend this movie if you have a chance to see it, especially since the Oscars are coming up soon! :)
PS: Make sure to stay till the end b/c there is a really funny post credits scene.
My rating: 4.8/5 stars
The Disaster Artist tells the true story of Tommy Wiseau (played by James Franco) and his friendship with Greg Sestero (played by Dave Franco) which then led to their making of the cult film The Room, widely considered to be one of the worst films ever made. This movie is based off the book of the same name written by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell.
I was excited to see The Disaster Artist because I was intrigued by the trailers and its overall premise surrounding this phenomenal mystery of modern film history, but I wasn't sure what exactly to expect. After I saw The Disaster Artist last month, I instantly wanted to rewatch it again because this is one of the most funniest and one of the best films of 2017!
James Franco also did a great job directing the film and making sure this crazy story was handled in a proper and careful manner. The reports about him directing it in character as Tommy with his accent + talking mannerisms manifest even more to the level of commitment that Franco put into this project and how much he cares about telling this unique story about a movie that's become a major form of unintentional comedy and a cult classic.
Even the supporting characters were pretty good. Seth Rogen and Paul Scheer play the script-supervisors and cinematographers of The Room and the way their reaction how Tommy is managing the crew and how he wants certain scenes from The Room to be acted out is just hilarious. There are also a ton of celebrity cameos in the first 5 minutes talking about the influence of The Room, noteworthy actors representing Hollywood elite figures at the time, and Josh Hutcherson and Zac Efron playing The Room characters and acting out their scenes.
This makes for great comedic timing when the actors are recreating famous scenes from The Room (which by the way, they did an amazing job at precisely matching the overall aesthetics and the original actors' movements). But there is also a lot of dramatic heft to this story as it displays a character who's a complete mystery and is simply determined to accomplish his dream of becoming a successful director. This makes it even more heartbreaking when Tommy slowly begins to realize that his ambition isn't getting the results he hoped for initially, before witnessing an unexpected form of success from the The Room's instant cult status. I liked the new spin it provided on the "American dream" story, despite the fact that the actual creation didn't turn out out the way the makers intended it. All of this is due to the witty dialogues + excellent script that has a clever balance of drama and comedy.
As far as content goes, there really isn't much to worry about. The characters do curse often and there is a small scene involving a male rear end, but this movie should be fine for ages 14+.
The Disaster Artist is a very entertaining, hilarious, and unexpectedly inspiring film with a powerful story of friendship + creativity at its core. I highly recommend this movie if you have a chance to see it, especially since the Oscars are coming up soon! :)
PS: Make sure to stay till the end b/c there is a really funny post credits scene.
My rating: 4.8/5 starsPS: Make sure to stay till the end b/c there is a really funny post credits scene.
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