San Francisco, '98. During an acting class, Greg Sestero, a young and aspiring actor, encounters the mysterious Tommy Wiseau and gets fascinated by his bold performance in front of the audience. They become friends. Upon hearing that Greg wants to make it in Hollywood, Tommy reveals that he actually has an apartment in Los Angeles and invites Greg to stay at his place. Greg even finds an agent to represent him, but they both fail to land any movie roles. Finally, Tommy decides to write his own script, and direct it into a movie, "The Room", staring himself and Greg. After numerous problems during principal photography, "The Room" premieres to the audience that laughs at it. However, Greg manages to cheer Tommy up and inspire him to accept the reaction to the movie.
James Franco's 12th directorial achievement proves once again the old saying that sometimes the events surrounding making a movie are sometimes far more interesting and fascinating than the sole movie in question. For this enterprise, Franco couldn't have chosen a riskier subject—Tommy Wiseau's bizarre film "The Room"—yet he delivered probably the best possible movie about the peculiar director since the result is a clever, funny, versatile, unusual and refreshingly human little film. A large credit should be given to the excellent script by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber who used Wiseau's story as a symbol for the plight and misunderstanding of outsiders, of people who are rejected by society just because they are different. However, the viewers should be familiar with "The Room" before watching "The Disaster Artist", since it contains so many hilarious little references to that film, whereas Franco perfectly nails Wiseau's little mannerisms and moves, downright to his surreal laugh. At least three quotes are unforgettable, two of which involve movie business: one is when an acting coach observes Tommy's performance and tells him that he should just plain villains ("I'm giving you a shortcut to success") and the other is when the actors are surprised how the aging actress, Carolyn, is willing to get up at 5 AM just to travel to the shooting of the movie, upon which she also delivers a fine, dignified reply ("Even the worst day on the movie set is better than the best day anywhere else"). Many jokes arrive swiftly, stemming from the character interactions which help alleviate for some minor flaws in editing or the choice of music, and the actors seem to have a blast saying all these one-liners from "The Room" which already inexplicably entered the hall of fame of pop culture ("Oh, hay Mark!"), signalling Wiseau's delayed 'Pyrrhic victory' after all. Neustadter and Weber strip Wiseau from his misguided writing piece by piece, until they get to the essence, to a man following his dreams despite all obstacles, to pure passion and expressiveness, which are universal traits of humanity.
Grade:+++
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