Review of The Disaster Artist (2017) by Alixandertang — 13 Feb 2018

If you have ever been a fan of movies past 2003, you might have heard of a little known film known as The Room. Written, directed, produced by and starring Tommy Wiseau, The Room is widely considered one of the worst, yet best movies ever made, sporting hilariously bad acting, bland direction and a lackluster plot, as such, it has gained a massive cult following over the years for being a generally hilarious movie to watch, not because of its comedic writing, but for its infamously bad, well, everything.

So, when The Disaster Artist hit theaters in late 2017 with little fanfare, no one really expected much out of it. Many, myself included, simply dismissed the movie as a parody of sorts and had thought of watching it as such.

To us, it had felt like an attempt to recreate the classic disaster-piece, but with James Franco as Tommy Wiseau. To our suprise though, the film was much more than that. The Disaster Artist had gone down a route that no one had ever saw coming, the film had humanized the classic cult flick, the absurd, surreal and extremely overacted movie had suddenly become a project that the viewer could sympathize with.

As much as we could laugh at Tommy Wiseau's terrible acting, James Franco had managed to paint him in a light that the general public never saw him in. The world knew Mr Wiseau as a joke, a laughing stock, but we hardly saw him as a person that really put his heart and soul into his vision that, although terrible, was precious to him.

The movie is still filled with memorable laughs, from James Franco's spot on portrayal of the flamboyant Tommy Wiseau, to the overall relationship between Tommy and Greg Sestero, it never felt too serious or too lighthearted and got that middle ground that many films struggle to reach.

Surprisingly warm and heartfelt, The Disaster Artist is definitely a film to catch and watch if you have ever seen the original The Room, or if you've just heard about it from the countless youtube videos and memes that it has spawned.