Great fun, but so much potential to have been a Kaufman-esque masterpiece

Rating: 8/10 (5 December 2017)

I love The Room (despite the weird nebula of disturbance it leaves in my mind afterwards) and Greg's book The Disaster Artist (many moments of which had me burst out in laughter).
Having anticipated the movie so much, I couldn't help but smile all the way through - the performances are brilliant, and the little nods and references to various aspects of the film and book are great. Tommy is as amusingly accurate as can be (its never going to be 100% successful, Tommy is completely unique). Its so much better to watch with others who are aware of The Room - you can feel the difference in reactions from people in the theater as to who 'gets it' and who doesn't.
I wanted Franco to push more of the randomly odd moments of the book but I can see that its a tough balancing act in terms of portraying his character. Franco does well to instead underscore the film with this sense of inner turmoil. In less sensitive hands Wiseau could easily become a cartoon target of mockery, but Franco gently invites you to consider his humanity, dreams and insecurities. This gives the film a much stronger backbone, especially when dovetailed with his relationship to Greg. But I couldn't help but find myself in that weird, murky and unsettling place again when exposed to 'Planet Tommy'. So there's as much tension as comedy - seeing the horrible conflict of encouragement/support vs honesty, opportunities vs loyalty, altruism vs expected reciprocation, tradition vs originality, believing in yourself vs listening to criticism (or, your own perception vs everyone else's).
It was a VERY ambitious and tough film to pull off considering the overall complexity, but overall they did a great job.
I would have LOVED the film to have gone even more meta to see more of the actors and filming of this film, intercut. E.g. the Francos talking about their discovery of The Room, seeing more outtakes of the actors laughing their heads of when trying to recreate scenes etc. If there had been scenes of James Franco writing bits of dialogue for the film, some rehearsals etc, trying to become Tommy, it could have become an insane masterpiece (sort of like Synecdoche New York crossed with Adaptation).