Not Good, And NOT A True Story

Rating: 5/10 (23 January 2019)

THE DISASTER ARTIST is a movie based on a book based on the true story of a movie. Or, more appropriately, it's based on the story of the making of a movie (THE ROOM) which was supposedly based on an unpublished novel that was based on an unproduced play that was written by THE ROOM's director Tommy Wiseau. The book that THIS film was based on was written by Tommy's friend and fellow ROOM actor Greg Sestero.
I read the book. It was very good and apparently follows the real events quite closely. So I was excited when the movie came out. But the movie does not follow the book or the truth very closely at all. It takes huge liberties, and bad ones at that. In lieu of changing things around to make them batter, this film instead makes them worse. Not because it changes the truth, just because the true events in this case happen to be better than the fiction. There was real drama on the set of THE ROOM. Good, interesting things happened that would have played well here. Director James Franco chose to swap those out for more boring things. I don't know why. Maybe it was because they got Bryan Cranston to play in their movie for cheap so they thought they'd change things around to write a part for the star of television's BREAKAING BAD (he's not bald in this one!).
Additionally, the plot plays out like a bad, sloppy version of ED WOOD, which also took liberties with the truth but in a much better, entertaining way, in order to improve the plot, which was not done here. Overall, the film is entertaining to a degree but never great. Maybe it will be less frustrating for those who haven't read the book, as things tend to be. Watch ED WOOD instead. Do not recommend.