Surprisingly brilliant - screamingly funny

Rating: 9/10 (1 October 2018)

San Francisco, 1998. Aspiring actor Greg Sestero meets Tommy Wiseau in an acting class. Wiseau is off-the-scale weird and hopelessly untalented as an actor but has a stupendous amount of self-confidence. Sestero and Wiseau form a friendship and move to Los Angeles to pursue their dream of making it big in Hollywood. After landing no roles, they decide to make their own movie. Produced, directed and written by Wiseau and with him in the lead role, the resulting movie is regarded as one of the worst movies ever made, if not THE worst - The Room.
I had very low expectations for this movie. I have seen The Room and it is truly terrible. For me it is the worst movie ever made (and I've seen heaps of terrible movies). So the idea of making (what seemed like) an homage to such a useless piece of excrement didn't appeal to me. Furthermore, The Disaster Artist is directed by, produced by and stars James Franco, someone whom I view as being one of the most overrated people in the film industry.
To my surprise, not only is this good, it's brilliant. More a parody than a homage, the movie is screamingly funny. I say 'parody', implying Franco went out to make fun of Wiseau and The Room, but in fact what's shown in the movie is pretty much what actually happened in the making of The Room. The screenplay is based on Greg Sestero's book on the making of The Room and Tommy Wiseau said after seeing this movie that it was 99.9% accurate.
James Franco does a superb job as Tommy Wiseau, capturing his accent and mannerisms perfectly. He seemed to be really having fun with the character, without mocking Wiseau. Surprised he didn't get an Oscar nomination for his efforts (though it was largely a comedic effort, and comedy performances don't tend to get Oscar nominations).
Dave Franco, James's brother, plays Greg Sestero and also does a great job.
Supporting cast are a who's-who of Hollywood: Seth Rogen (he had to be in there somewhere - this is a James Franco movie!), Alison Brie (Dave Franco's real-life wife), Jacki Weaver, Paul Scheer, Zac Efron, Josh Hutcherson, Megan Mullally, Sharon Stone, Melanie Griffith, Bob Odenkirk. Tommy Wiseau even has a minor role - keep watching until after the credits.
James Franco pulls it all together with a deftness that is great to behold. Every time there was a serious moment I worried that the movie would degenerate into empty sentimentality but these dramatic moments are handled sensitively, and with a sense of profundity, without overdoing the sappiness. I even came away with a degree of admiration for Wiseau, something I would not have thought possible.
I have a new-found respect for James Franco, as actor and director and for his sense of film history.