Before I get into my review of The Disaster Artist, allow me to give you readers some context about the movie that The Disaster Artist is about which is The Room. No, not Room starring Brie Larson. THE Room. Very different. Our story begins with a guy named Tommy Wiseau. He was the writer, director, producer, executive producer, and star of The Room. The Room was his passion project that he invested $6 million of his unknown fortune. No one knows where he came from or how old he is, even to this day. Ever since it premiered in June of 2003, audiences were asking how did this disasterpiece of a movie get made. The Room has became a cult phenomenon with midnight interactive screenings, kind of like The Rocky Horror Picture Show or an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, across the country and some even hosted by Tommy Wiseau himself, as well as garnering many celebrity fans like Paul Rudd, Will Arnett, Kevin Smith, Kristen Bell, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Seth Rogen, and James & Dave Franco. In 2013, Greg Sestero, the actor who plays Mark in The Room, published a book about his experience on the production called The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made. So now that I gave you some background, let’s continue with the review. And now, A24 and New Line Cinema have released their latest comedy drama with The Disaster Artist.
When Greg Sestero, an aspiring film actor, meets the weird and mysterious Tommy Wiseau in an acting class, they form a unique friendship and travel to Los Angeles to make their dreams come true by making the cult phenomenon known as The Room.
Edward’s Review: How is it from the perspective of a fan of The Room?-The Disaster Artist is a fantastic movie that is a must-watch for any fan of The Room. The story is consistently funny when we get into the production of The Room, and also surprisingly heartfelt at times when it looks into Greg and Tommy’s friendship. You don’t even have to see The Room to enjoy this movie, but if you have, it makes the re-enactments of famous scenes so much funnier. James Franco is fantastic in this movie as Tommy Wiseau showing how eccentric and weird he can be, and also he nails the accent. Dave Franco was also pretty good as Greg. Another actor who was a show-stealer for me was Seth Rogen as Sandy Schklair, the script supervisor of The Room who thinks that everything happening in this movie is just weird which can also get a good laugh from the audience because they are like Sandy and questioning everything wrong with this movie. The way he is more the “straight man” character to Tommy’s eccentricity almost makes me think of Brian Griffin being the straight-man, or dog in that case, to Peter Griffin’s idiocy in Family Guy. You can tell that James Franco put his heart and soul into this movie which can also be seen whenever we see the cast of The Disaster Artist re-enact famous scenes from The Room. It’s always hilarious seeing Zac Efron as Chris-R shouting at Josh Hutcherson as Denny asking “Where’s my freaking money Denny?!” And during the credits of the movie, you get to see a side-by-side comparison between the actual scenes in The Room and The Disaster Artist’s re-enactments, so stay during the credits for those as well as funny bit of a post-credits scene. Even though I think that part would’ve worked as a bonus feature on the DVD and Blu-ray, but they still are expertly handled. I could see this movie hopefully being a potential Oscar contender. Overall, The Disaster Artist is one of the funniest films of the year and also one of my favorite films of the year. I’m going to give The Disaster Artist a 10/10 with the Edward’s Seal of Approval and my highest recommendation.
Philip’s Review: How Is It Compared to The Book?- Let’s get this out of the way first: This is a fabulous film. The cinematography invokes a wonderful documentary esque feel, the soundtrack captures the early 2000’s feel quite nicely, and James Franco definitely takes the film home in a spectacular way. The one critique possible for this film, is its use of the source material. The book of the same name, The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made, is an in-depth look into the lives of both Greg Sestero and the enigmous Tommy Wiseau throughout the years preceding and during production of The Room. The movie, however is sometimes quite distant from some facts, creating its own storylines to tie up loose ends created by splicing the book up to fit its 104 minute runtime. This is somewhat disappointing to an avid The Room fanatic, seeing as the source material is most likely what you will be seeing this movie for. But enough with the critique. I double down on all of Edward’s praise of this film. With all of the heart of a home made fan film and the delicacy of a Hollywood production, I give The Disaster Artist fifteen red dresses out of ten, and Philip’s Sticker of Awesomeness. Go ahead and check it out. After you’re done seeing Star Wars, of course.
