Morecambe and Wiseau

Rating: 7/10 (11 September 2018)

Greg (Dave Franco) meets enigmatic and eccentric Tommy Wiseau (James Franco) at an acting class in San Francisco. They decide to move to LA together to pursue their dreams of acting professionally. When opportunity doesn't knock, Tommy decides to write, star, direct and finance his own feature "The Room". His unique approach to filmmaking, along with his distinctive acting and writing styles mean that "The Room" is considered one of the worst films ever made, but it also is a cult hit that runs for years.
I've never actually seen "The Room" but enough of the memes have made it to me that I knew about its existence and have seen the "Oh Hiya Mark" scene. Fortunately, though helpful, I don't think that seeing "The Room" is essential to enjoying "The Disaster Artist". As a comedy in its own right, it's pretty funny. The decision to focus the story on Dave Franco's Greg was a good one, as he's a much more relatable character than the mysterious Tommy. When it comes to the actual making of the film the farce of the situation grows and grows as Tommy's erratic decisions and terrible artistic choices create a difficult environment for the experienced cast and crew he hires. It's at this point that the film is at it's funniest.
To be honest, I started to grow weary of James Franco's Tommy Wiseau after a while. It's a very good impression, but you do get used to it and (although the real answers aren't known), I ended up wishing for a few answers to the questions about Tommy's background. It's not the only flaw, the issues that come up between the pair come and go without too much real exploration of the reasons behind them and I'm not sure I really buy how quickly Tommy comes around to accepting the audience's reactions.
I'm not sure I'm likely to rewatch it too many times, but it was a diverting time whilst it lasted.