Every now and then, a filmmaker of such epic ineptitude
rises to leave his immortal mark on the cultural landscape. Back in the 50s, we
had the legendary Ed Wood, creator of such masterpieces such as Plan 9 from
Outer Space, an awe-inspiring tale of paper-mache flying saucers, day changing
to night every minute, and the hammiest alien invaders this side of Shatner.
And despite having marginally more skill than a drunken home movie, creator and
creation become immortal through the sheer memorablity of their silliness. Ed
even got his own biopic courtesy of Tim Burton, Johnny Depp in the role and
everything. And so too now does the master of cult crap of this generation,
thanks to the Franco brothers, Tommy Wiseau.
In case you don’t know, Tommy is the human—I presume—that
gave the world the…erm…thing known as The Room, back in 2003. It’s hard to
describe the plot of that film, because it doesn’t really have one, mostly
being a weird collection of substandard soap opera, inexplicable greenscreen,
and ‘sex scenes’ that defy anatomy. But what really sold it was incredible
dialogue such as “I did not hit her! It’s not true! It’s bullshit! I did not hit
her! Oh hai, Mark.’ and ‘Anyway, how is your sex laif?’ All of it filtered
through a combination of awkwardness and one half-stoned Eastern European
accent! If you've seen it, you're quoting it right now, aren't you.
But the result was so memorable and somehow endearing that
over the years, it became a classic of midnight screenings—yeah, it’s inept,
but it’s trying, dammit, and that sort of stumbling passion just draws people
in even more. Back when I was in college, everyone was obsessed with this damn
film, and it’s also helped by the mystery surrounding Tommy himself. Nobody
knows for certain just where he’s from—depending on who you believe, he’s
Cajun, Czech, Polish, or Andromedan—and just how he ponied up the six million
the film swallowed up is something no reasonable explanation has been offered
for. Enter Greg Sistero, co-star of the film and Tommy’s friend, who penned a
book on the whole bizarre production that became the feature we have now: The
Disaster Artist.
The film immediately gives us a look at the extent of The
Room’s cult appeal, with comments from JJ Abrams to Kevin Smith. After that it
starts us out with Dave Franco as Greg Sistero, a struggling aspiring actor in
the late 90s, who suddenly gets whisked along by James Franco as the vaguely
vampiric Wiseau, who has little knowledge of such things as ‘restraint’ or
‘social acceptability’. James exaggerates Tommy’s mannerisms in his performance
slightly—key word being slightly. It seems a little cartoonish at first, but
for anyone who’s seen The Room, it becomes perfectly fitting and natural and
minutes.
And that’s what makes this one a hit—you buy the younger
Franco as that eager youth trying to make his mark in the world that we’ve all
tried to be, between his stammering beginnings and his thrill at punching for
the big time on his move to LA. You do need to have seen The Room to truly
appreciate his older sibling/co-star here, but even so, he expresses that odd
combination of unrelenting drive and bizarre social ineptitude that someone
like Wiseau carries so well. Once he starts breaking down as the film goes
along, trying to keep his friend while maintaining an iron fist over his film
production, all of these little facets are rendered perfectly believable.
And speaking of the production of the little indie that the
two strove to make after being rejected by Hollywood…that’s where the real
hilarity comes in. Made all the better by the fact that going by Sistero’s
book, it’s mostly true. From Tommy attempting a dual film/digital camera
setup—if you don’t know, that’s the movie equivalent of adding bicycle wheels
to the side of your car—to insisting the camera catches his bare ass, to the 57
takes it was needed for him to say one of the ‘classic’ lines mentioned above.
The reactions of Seth Rogen as the script supervisor on set sell it all—and
let’s face it, we’ve all been in a situation where a clueless amateur tries to
take command through sheer force of will, making it all the more relatable.
Eventually, Sistero and Tommy’s relationship breaks down,
though from what I can tell the film does leave some things out—only to be
rekindled once the film is released, and Tommy learns to adapt to the
unexpected—yet ultimately positive—reaction he receives. It’s strangely
uplifting in many ways—try hard enough, and your dreams might come true, even
if it’s not quite the way you want. Mr. Wiseau wanted a movie to last the ages…and
he sure as hell got one. Hell, it’s telling that we have a movie adapted from a
book about the making of that movie.
So yeah, I heartily recommend this one. You may not get all
the little nods if you haven’t seen The Room, but I think it’ll still work even
if you haven’t, just helping to make all the lunacy that much more funnier and
surprising. I heard several people on leaving the cinema mention they hurt
their muscles from laughing—a testament to the joy, mocking or otherwise, a
silly independent film from the early 2000s has given us.
As Tommy would
put it—‘If a laht of people can learn to laf together, the warld would be a
better place’.
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