Review of The Disaster Artist (2017) by Ffejery — 17 Dec 2017

Oh, Hi everyone. I am so glad James Franco didn't make a mean-spirited condescending movie with a two-dimensional portrayal of Tommy Wiseau. I was expecting that when I first heard about this movie, knowing some of Franco's other projects. But the movie is not that. It's empathic. It celebrates people who are brave enough to do what they love even if they are bad at it. That's so tragic to be bad at something you love doing. I love that the movie criticized the audience too for laughing at him. After a bad performance an acting teacher tells Tommy he has the look of a villain, trying to help him get work. Tommy responds that he doesn't feel like a villain. The audience is the villain for laughing at him. Why do we laugh at him? There are plenty of bad actors that aren't entertaining. I think the comedy mostly comes from Tommy's inability to reconcile what he wants to be with what he actually is. In other words he is delusional. Is it mean-spirited to laugh at that?

It would be so ironic if James Franco won the oscar for best actor portraying one of the worst! He did an incredible job and sadly for Tommy, he may deserve it. We'll see how it stacks up against some other good performances coming out soon.