James
Franco directed and stars as Tommy Wiseau in The Disaster Artist, which is a
chronicle of the making of The Room. I
guess Franco was trying to make an Ed Wood for this generation. You know, showing the hopes and aspirations
of (allegedly) untalented filmmakers who against all odds manage to make a
movie so bad (or unique, depending on your point of view) that it becomes
legendary. While it lacks the poignancy
of Ed Wood, it certainly is a doozy of a showcase for Franco.
Tommy
meets Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) in acting class and they bond over their love
of acting, movies, and James Dean. Greg
is an inhibited pretty boy who is intrigued by Tommy’s fearlessness on stage,
even if it does look fucking crazy.
Together, they make a promise to stick by one another through thick and
thin. After years of not making it big
in Hollywood, they finally decide to make their own movie, the one and only The
Room.
Franco
disappears into the role of Wiseau completely.
He captures his mystique and larger than life personality perfectly. He never turns him into a cartoon though and even
gets you rooting for his underdog character.
At
its heart, The Disaster Artist as a tribute to the dreamer. It’s about following your dreams no matter
how big and no matter your skill set. If
there is a flaw, it’s that it’s missing the energy of the film its chronicling. Then again, the recreations of The Room are fun
(especially the side by side comparisons near the end), even if they do lack
the unbridled zeal of the movie.
I
guess another quibble I had was that it also feels a bit rushed near the
end. The idea that Wiseau could win over
the audience in one screening sort of smacks of your standard biopic formula
(as does Seth Rogen’s character, who is basically there to relay to the
audience just how bad the movie is and why Wiseau’s unorthodox directorial
decisions are wrong). It’s hard to know
how broad the movie’s appeal will be. I
don’t know if anyone beyond fans of The Room will want to have anything to do
with it. All I know is that as a fan of
The Room, and Franco, I had fun with it.
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