Fascinating and Funny Insight

Rating: 9/10 (24 April 2018)

So going in, I've seen The Room. I've also seen the Rifftrax version, which is one of the best riffs on a film I've ever seen. The fascination with this film was something I'd heard about for a long time, and I'd missed out on Rifftrax live versions for quite some time before I finally got a watch in. Now, I've been able to view the Disaster Artist, and find out how a fascinating piece of cinema history came to be.
And it's really difficult to use a different word to describe it. Tommy Wiseau is a strange bird, so unlike anyone else in the film industry, and perhaps life in general. Nobody knows who he is or where he came from, or why he's so loaded. And yet, he creates this bizarre masterpiece that becomes a cult phenomenon on account of its sheer awfulness.
The overacting, missing or derailed plot threads, strange dialogue, and general cluelessness made the original movie quite the sight to behold. It is like a vanity project for someone who hasn't earned that vanity. And James Franco's spot-on portrayal of Wiseau shows this evocateur to be quite the odd duck with strange habits, and an intriguing charisma that allowed him to take his friend on this journey and successfully make and distribute a film, a thing many people only ever dream of.
James Franco did a tremendous job of recreating the scenes from The Room, and bringing Wiseau's personality to life. No matter what he may or may not have done in the real world, he brought his A game to this project and made it very memorable.