“The Room” by Tommy Wiseau is an absolute cult and the story behind it incredible. If you’re interested in this legendarily bad movie, you can’t miss “The Disaster Artist” – only a few days left in your Amazon Prime Video subscription.
“I did not hit her, it’s not true! It’s bullshit! I did not hit her! I did not! Oh hi, Mark.” This is just one of the many legendary lines from Tommy Wiseau’s cult trash movie masterpiece “The Room” – a film so bad and unintentionally hilarious that it is still celebrated frenetically by movie fans in theaters today. No emphasis sits here, the plot is frighteningly simplistic, and director and lead actor Tommy Wiseau comes across in places as an alien trying to imitate being human.
“The Room” was produced in the U.S. in 2003 and was shown in only two theaters after its premiere. However, through “positive” word of mouth, the film gradually developed into a true cult film that is still regularly screened in lichstpielhäuser around the globe.
The extent to which “The Room” is still celebrated today is also demonstrated by “The Disaster Artist.” The film directed by James Franco (“The Interview”), who also stars here as Wiseau, takes a closer look at the strange and extremely bizarre story of how the cult phenomenon came to be. Those who have had the film on their Pile of Shame for a long time must be quick now: Amazon Prime Video subscribers only have until August 26, 2023 to stream “The Disaster Artist” at no additional cost.
A BOW TOMMY WISEAU
The origin story of “The Room” is so incredibly absurd in places that even the test audience for “The Disaster Artist” couldn’t believe it all happened. In the process, James Franco’s homage captures the individual steps of this magnificent failure, but without explaining too much. Why Wiseau insisted on hiring an expensive and professional film crew for his project and or found it necessary to shoot even ridiculously unspectacular scenes (roof of a house) in front of a green screen will probably forever remain a secret of the filmmaker.
“The Disaster Artist” doesn’t try to solve the mystery of Tommy Wiseau, but is ultimately a big bow to one of the most outlandish filmmakers of the last 50 years. This guy, with his peculiar accent, obscure backstory, and chunky sunglasses, is an absolute one-off that even a Method actor like James Franco seems to fail at in places.
He doesn’t always succeed in imitating this unique character in a fully believable way. But probably not even Tommy Wiseau could believably portray Tommy Wiseau – a strange cameo scene in the credits supports this thesis once again.
Happily, “The Disaster Artist” is not a deconstruction of circumstances, not a psychological analysis of the eccentric filmmaker, but a simple retelling of events – and that, in the end, is simply an absurdly funny and delightfully chaotic cinematic delight that you should definitely catch up on in the next few days if you have the chance.
