Film Review: The Disaster Artist (2017)

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The Disaster Artist (15)

Starring: James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen

Director: James Franco

The Plot: A dramatisation of how a film considered by many to be the worst ever made, 2003's The Room, came into being. The Disaster Artist chronicles the events of how Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) meets the bizarre Tommy Wiseau (James Franco); the two share a passion for acting and the movie business, but lack any talent whatsoever. Tommy encourages Greg to move to LA with him where, after a sustained period of rejections, Tommy decides to make his own film: The Room, written by, produced by, directed by and starring himself, with Greg as the second lead. The results become infamous . . .

Review: Despite having become a viral sensation over the years, it's quite likely that you may not have heard of The Room before, or the spectacularly bizarre Tommy Wiseau and his terrible acting. I've seen it, and I have to tell you, it really is awful. Before we go any further, I'm going to direct you to a YouTube link that I encourage you to watch first and then come back here. It's a short montage of some of the most infamous moments from The Room, and it'll give you an idea of both the production value and the acting:

"You're tearing me apart!" - best bits of The Room

It's something, isn't it? It's rather ironic, then, that in making a film about what's possibly the worst film ever made (although after seeing Transformers: The Last Knight this year that's open to debate), James Franco has brought us what is, in my opinion, one of the best films of the year. The Disaster Artist is hilarious, and it really is brilliant.

The film is based on the novel of the same name, co-written by Greg Sestero (Dave Franco's character in the film). It's interesting to note that over the years Wiseau has discredited the book, claiming that it's not an accurate depiction of what happened, and he also initially spoke out against the making of the film. However, in recent weeks he's been appearing with James Franco on late night talk shows in the US promoting it, so he seems on board with it now. This about-face is not unusual for a person who's so unusual himself: as the film points out at its conclusion, to this day nobody knows where in Europe the intensively secretive Wiseau is originally from (he claims to be from New Orleans), how old he is, or where his money comes from - he self-financed The Room to estimates of $6million.

Central to the film is James Franco's performance as Wiseau, which is not to take anything away from Dave Franco's excellent performance as Greg, which I'll get to in a moment. James Franco is simply astonishing here - he has quite literally become Wiseau. From the first moment he appears on screen (at Greg's acting class in San Francisco, where he launches into a manic performance of a scene from A Streetcar Named Desire) he completely nails the character, from the look with the long black hair and facial prosthetics, to his strange accent, mannerisms and odd laugh. He reportedly stayed in character for the entire shoot, and even went so far as to mimic what Wiseau himself did - he placed a billboard advertisement for The Disaster Artist featuring a real phone number, to which Franco would randomly answer the calls made to it, in character as Wiseau. I can't think of the last time I saw an actor become a real-life character so completely, and it's again ironic in that, playing a character who has zero acting talent, Franco has produced such a terrific performance. It's not just the visual and physical stuff either: he shows us all sides of Wiseau's character here, from the bizarre to the unpleasant, and there are even moments when he cuts a tragic figure, such as when we see Wiseau at his lowest points after being completely rejected or facing the prospect of being alone after Greg wants to move out, and we feel genuine sympathy for him. Wiseau is a comical figure and Franco is absolutely hilarious here, but it's important that he's not mocking him with this performance. This is echoed in the overall tone of the film, which I'll talk about shortly.

 

As I mentioned, Dave Franco also puts in an excellent performance as Greg. While the film is dominated by Tommy (and James Franco's performance), this is arguably Greg's story - it's told through his eyes, it's about how he met Tommy, about how Tommy convinced him to shoot for their dream of acting, and about his experience during the awkward and unusual shoot for The Room. Greg is a much more sympathetic character than Tommy - he's a bit naive, and lonely, but he's trusting, and he sees something in Tommy that other people can't. The two formed a genuine bond in real life which (despite the ups and downs we see in the film) they maintain to this day, and Franco's performance makes it very clear just how important it was for Greg to find a friend like Tommy.

The rest of the supporting cast all do very well. Seth Rogen has a very untaxing role as Sandy, the exasperated script supervisor on the crew of The Room who cannot believe Tommy's bizarre behaviour, but he plays it well and gets a lot of laughs from his reactions to Tommy. Alison Brie has a small supporting role as Greg's girlfriend Amber, which is far below a woman of her talent but she provides warmth whenever she's on screen, and she's the setup for a cameo from Bryan Cranstone. It was also amusing to see Josh Hutcherson and Zac Efron in small roles, particularly Efron who, as the character "Chris-R", basically just had to yell "Where's my money you cocksucking motherfucker!" over and over again.

A quick mention must be made to James Franco's direction here as well. This is a confident, well-shot film and the attention to detail that he's paid is astounding. The film goes to great lengths to recreate key scenes from The Room, not just in performance but also in sets, lighting, framing, music, so much so that at the beginning of the credits we're treated to a series of clips where scenes from The Room are played next to their equivalent scenes in The Disaster Artist, and it's uncanny just how accurate they are.

Ultimately, what makes the film work so well is that this isn't a mockery of The Room. While the film is incredibly funny, and pokes fun at The Room and at Wiseau and his persona and acting, it's done in a good-natured way and isn't done for cruelty. What the film is, is a celebration of the bonds of friendship and the act of chasing your dream, regardless of what the results of that dream are. Great affection is shown here for Wiseau's passion and determination, despite his bizarre nature, and it's clear that the message that Franco is trying to get across here is that while it's okay to laugh at The Room and at Wiseau and Sestero, these are two people who took a chance to make their dream happen, and that deserves your respect.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
The irony is strong here as one of the best films of the year is the chronicle of one of the worst ever made. This is a terrific film, with an astonishingly good central performance from James Franco who directs with strength as well. Supported by an excellent performance from his brother Dave Franco, this film both pokes good-natured fun at The Room and celebrates the passion that brought it to life. Essential viewing.