The Disaster Artist: How worst movie ever made became legend

SPECTACULARLY derided as the worst movie ever made, The Room is getting another lease on life as a funny and smart film from James Franco.

BEST known as the worst movie ever made, Tommy Wiseau’s The Room has gained legend status since it first debuted to a mocking crowd in 2003.

From Wiseau’s oddly menacing face glaring down from the movie’s billboards to the horrendously bad acting and off-tone everything else, the film’s bizarre success is not something anyone could have foreseen, not even its fearless but clueless leading actor-director-writer-producer.

Completely self-funded by his mysterious millions, Wiseau’s movie, ostensibly a drama about betrayal, still screens in midnight sessions around the world to a cult of fans, laughing their butts off, armed with plastic spoons (it’s a thing).

The Room is the epitome of so-bad-it’s-good, mentioned in the same breath as Reefer Madness or Plan 9 From Outer Space.

So, naturally, given its weird journey so far, The Room now has Oscar buzz associations.

The mystery surrounding Wiseau — where he’s from (Europe, he admitted last week), how old he is (he claims he was in his 20s during The Room) and where his millions come from — are just some of the reasons the movie has remained in the cultural consciousness rather than fade into oblivion.

Its notoriety is how Greg Sestero, Wiseau’s mate and co-star in The Room, managed to publish The Disaster Artist in 2013, a behind-the-scenes biography into the production of this strange movie and the mercurial man that spearheaded it.

One of the book’s many fans was Renaissance man James Franco, who hadn’t even seen The Room at that point. Franco, like so many before him, became fascinated with the enigmatic Wiseau, as told through Sestero’s lens.

Because, why not? Picture: Justina Mintz/A24 via AP

The result is a hilarious and smart movie based on a book about the making of the worst movie of all time, directed by Franco, a man who also enjoys a reputation as a bit of an oddball, albeit a significantly more talented one.

You don’t need to have seen The Room to really appreciate The Disaster Artist though it certainly would elevate the joy of experiencing this peculiar project.

Charting the story from the moment Wiseau and Greg meet in a San Francisco acting class in the late ‘90s to the premiere of The Room, The Disaster Artist is also a story about deception, friendship and insecurities.

Along the way, we’re treated to the shambolic The Room production — the infamous “Oh, hi, Mark” scene took 57 takes.

The presiding thing to note about The Disaster Artist is just how self-referential it is. There’s no getting away from its genesis and it doesn’t try to.

Unlike most films, it doesn’t try to suck you into its world, it’s completely aware of its many layers. It’s almost Brechtian in how self-conscious it — and Franco — is of its intent.

That Franco is directing himself playing a character that directed himself is just the first layer in this meta explosion. That Franco cast his brother Dave as Greg, and Alison Brie, who’s married to Dave Franco, as Greg’s girlfriend Amber is the second.

“You’re tearing me apart, Lisa!” Picture: Warner Bros/Roadshow Films.

There’s no shortage of famous faces popping up in support roles or cameos, chief among them Seth Rogen, who’s also one of the producers on The Disaster Artist.

The others include Zac Efron, Sharon Stone, Ari Graynor, Hannibal Buress, Paul Scheer, Bryan Cranston, Judd Apatow, Casey Wilson, Megan Mullally, Bob Odenkirk, Randall Park, Angelyne, Adam Scott, Keegan-Michael Key and even Wiseau himself in a post-credits surprise.

While stunt casting usually yanks an audience out of the story, here it only reinforces just how strange this whole endeavour is.

A perfect example is a scene of Wiseau defending his difficult demeanour on set by pointing out Hitchcock was cruel to Tippi Hedren during The Birds’ production. Melanie Griffith, Hedren’s daughter, has a cameo as an acting teacher at the beginning of The Disaster Artist.

That doesn’t mean this movie is just some Hollywood parody or inside joke. It takes Wiseau’s humanity, foibles and vulnerability seriously and portrays him as a wounded individual who wanted to be an All-American James Dean-type hero and not the ogre or villain everyone else saw him as.

Franco as Wiseau is spot-on — more than mere mimicry — as a rounded character that gives insight to a person whose legend has baffled so many for so long.

Rating: 3.5/5

The Disaster Artist is in cinemas from today.

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