Film Review - The Disaster Artist (15)

I wish we could just make our own movie.

The Disaster Artist recounts one of the most bizarre true stories in modern film-making. James Franco directs, while starring as maverick wannabee actor/film-maker Tommy Wiseau. In 2003 Wiseau made and promoted a film called The Room, which has achieved notoriety as one of the most deliriously bad movies ever screened. This is the story of that movie's creation, and also an insight into its weird, enigmatic and lavishly untalented creator.

To explain the film-within-the-film is virtually impossible, as the The Room is a work of rambling absurdity. Basically it's about an 'American hero' called Johnny (played by Wiseau), whose girlfriend Lisa is cheating on him with his best friend Mark. There's a lot of other really random and incoherent stuff going on around them, which defies explanation. To get the film made Wiseau delved into his mysteriously vast personal fortune, so that he could at least surround himself with a competent crew. Their efforts, however, could do nothing to mask the staggering ineptitude of both screenplay and directing, or the '70s porno standard of the acting. And no one could contain the flamboyantly ridiculous performance of the leading man - an actor whose claim to originate from New Orleans was belied by his decidedly odd Eastern European accent.

Franco's film is most clearly comparable to Tim Burton's Ed Wood, in that it's a very good movie about the making of a stunningly bad one. The narrative centres on the developing friendship between Wiseau and acting student Greg Sestero, who went on to play Mark in The Room, and from whose movie-set memoir The Disaster Artist was adapted. Sestero (played by James Franco's younger brother Dave) is mesmerised by Wiseau's unorthodox acting at a class in San Fransisco, interpreting it as genius. Hoping to channel the raw performance style of Marlon Brando or James Dean, the pair of them travel to LA, on the hunt for Hollywood glory. It's there that Wiseau conceives his screenplay, and sets about bringing it to inglorious life.

Key to The Disaster Artist's success is James Franco's performance, easily the high-point of his career to date. He portrays Wiseau as a shambling yeti of an man, semi-coherent and possessed by a narcissistic belief in his own genius. The self-styled auteur is a hilariously crazed extrovert and occasional bully, with a core of gnawing insecurity. As Sestero, the younger Franco is nerve-ridden and callow, easily drawn into Wiseau's insane orbit. Their relationship is touching at points and uncomfortably co-dependent at others. 

This is also a very funny film, not least on the set of The Room, a sequence of extended comedic joy. Wiseau's questionable film-making technique tests the cast and crew's patience to its limit, with Seth Rogen particularly amusing as the wry assistant director. Nor does it all become so in-jokey as to alienate those who have never seen The Room. If you have, that's a bonus. If not, you'll probably want to afterwards.

Ultimately Franco's movie resembles Ed Wood in spirit as well as subject-matter. While Tommy Wiseau's less attractive qualities are never ignored, there's a heroism to his doomed artistic strivings; this is a celebration of magnificent failure rather than a cheap exercise in mockery. I giggled my way through The Room a few nights back and came away with a strange affection for everyone involved, something that only increased on viewing The Disaster Artist. See the latter movie on its own, or view them as companion pieces. Either way you'll be wonderfully entertained.

Gut Reaction: Laughter and cringing - lots of both.

Ed's Verdict: Franco's passion project is as smartly written and produced as Wiseau's is disastrous. And his performance as Wiseau is both monstrous and moving. Great stuff.