Brother Franco's fun piece

Rating: Null/10 (14 January 2018)

"The disaster artist" is a movie about making a movie. While this is not exactly a "genre", it's something that appeals to filmmakers. Coming to mind right away is Truffaut's "Day for night" (1973). A bit more recent is this little gem of a movie "Super 8" (2011). Movie about making a movie. I am sure there are quite a few others.
The movie tells (not "based on", but truly "tells") the story of the making of "The room" (2003), together with the parallel story of a somewhat (but not exceedingly) strange friendship between Tommy Wiseau (James Franco, who won a Golden Globe for his trouble) and Greg Sestero (Dave Franco, James's brother).
Clocking in with an IMDb user average rating of 3.6, "The room" is considered by many as a serious contender of the worst movie ever made. How did this come by? Well, it started with a chance meeting of Wiseau and Sestero in an acting class. The audience is shown Sestero first, doing a pathetically tentative "Waiting for Godot", with mispronouncing the name in the title to boot. Young, handsome and disarming as Sestero is, it is painfully obvious that the single most important ingredient for an actor is missing: confidence. Wiseau is something else. When his turn comes, he keeps repeating the one name that is among the best known in stage plays, "Estella!" as uttered by Stanley Kowalski in "A streetcar named Desire". Wiseau seems to be making a career out of this one word, spitting it out using an assortment of equally incomprehensible expressions and body movements which includes climbing up the side of the stage in the style of Caesar ("Planet of the Apes" rebooted series). One person (the only one, most likely) witnessing this outburst is impressed. After class, Sestero approaches Wiseau asking for help in acting. The next thing we know, the two become friends and comrades, heading out to L.A. in a quest to fulfill their dreams and aspirations in the film industry.
After an energetic start, while Sestero at least manages to get himself signed by an agent (but with no ensuing action), Wiseau is a complete washout. What follows is the meat of "The disaster artists": recreating the drama of the making of "The room", a project that Wiseau undertakes, financed by what seems an inexhaustible source of funds available to him. The rest is history. The "The room" was a total flop at initial release but managed to acquire a new life as a minor cult.

It is about time James Franco wins a major award as he did here with the acting (he also directed "The disaster artist"). There are several concurrent Golden-Globe-honored movies with portrayals of real life persons, the success of which requires the actor to dematerialize himself/herself and inhabit the character. Gary Oldman is stunning with Churchill, won, and will no doubt go on with a clean sweep of all best actor awards all the way to March 4 (Oscar). Emma Stone did not win with Billie Jean King but did a commendable job. Franco shares Oldman's honor by his own win in the "Comedy/Musical" category here, fully deserving. Fortunate for him that Golden Globe has this category. Franco plays Wiseau with gusto and fun, leaving out the Dark Side of The Force in Wiseau, a wise decision.
Brother Dave Franco as an easier job of playing a normal person, which he discharged with honor. The rest of the cast includes some familiar faces which are a delight to behold. Seth Rogen plays the straight-face, business-serious script supervisor. Jackie Weaver is in a couple of scene stealing cameos as one of the actors engaged for "The room". A little more than a cameo, playing another actor, is Josh Hutcherson whose face is impossible to miss after his "Hunger Game" and "Journey" movie franchises appearance.
A big bonus is the epilogue which shows a dozen scenes on making "The room" as seen earlier. Now you see these scene again, a split screen parallel with the original scene from "The room". The meticulous re-creation (dialogue, acting, and down to every detail under the Art Direction department) of these scenes will take your breath away as well as hit you with an uncanniness that is almost creepy. I don't remember seeing this done anywhere else, and cannot help thinking what something like this will look like for "Psycho" (1998), Gus Van Sant's re-ake that purportedly replicated the original shot-by-shot.