The Disaster Artist Is A Funny Look At A Beautiful Mess

In the history of bad movies, no film is ever mentioned as much as the critically derided, The Room, released in 2003 by director Tommy Wiseau. The movie is often called “the Citizen Kane of bad movies.”

Fourteen years later, James Franco decided to tackle the making of the cult classic in his latest film, The Disaster Artist. Originally a book written by The Room co-star Greg Sestero, it details how Sestero met Wiseau and the trials and tribulations of making the movie.

Franco plays Wiseau and his younger brother, Dave Franco, plays Sestero. Wiseau is a strange, hulking figure with an odd accent and a love of actors like James Dean. After various unsuccessful auditions, he and Sestero decide to form a friendship and make a movie for themselves. It is a strange journey, filled with stressful takes of filming and the constant questions of where Wiseau is getting funding for the film.

The acting is great, though at times James Franco just sounds like he is doing a Tommy Wiseau impression. At times it is very convincing, though Wiseau could have probably  played himself and it would have felt the same. The other cast members did a good job, with the younger Franco playing a supportive, yet concerned friend and Seth Rogen as a stressed script supervisor. There were also a lot of cameos from an array of actors, ranging from Bryan Cranston to Judd Apatow.

Having seen The Room in the past, it was enjoyable to see the callbacks to that film and it paints a clearer picture to how the weirder scenes were filmed.

Whether you are a fan of the cult classic or you have never heard of it and you’re just interested in the strangeness of it all, I definitely recommend it. I only wish they would have shown an aftermath of what happened after the film release, because the ending felt rushed.

It’s funny from start to finish and an interesting look at what it took to make one of the worst films ever.