Movie Reaction: The Disaster Artist

Formula: (Ed Wood * Bowfinger) ^ The Room

I've been toying with the idea lately of movies that make you appreciate other movies more; basically, bad movies that make you like the good versions of the same story more. Specifically, I thought of this because Lock Up makes The Shawshank Redemption look somehow even better. This isn't a new concept though. Sequels, prequels, reboots, parodies - there are all sorts of movies that need to be paired with another movie(s) to work best. The smallest group is the "movies about movies" subgenre, and they tend to be less dependent on first seeing the films they're paired with. Seeing A Trip to the Moon helps make Hugo even more impactful, but it's hardly required. I liked Ed Wood plenty even though I haven't seen Plan 9 from Outer Space. I could even see how watching Heart of Darkness before Apocalypse Now could work. They simply amplify the effect. I bring all this up to make it clear that there's nothing wrong with what I'm about to say. The Disaster Artist should only be watched if you've seen The Room.

The Room is an awful movie. I hate recommending it to anyone because there's a list of at least a thousand movies I would recommend over it. It is a glorious mess though that is best appreciated when watched with a group of people who all embrace that it's bad. It's more fun that way and it stops you from making the mistake of watching it like any other movie - expecting logic, narrative flow, etc. If you aren't familiar with the movie, I won't bother describing it, because the story is too inconsistent to bother. Just know that it's bad and veers uncomfortably into Skinemax territory. The real story of the movie is the writer/producer/director/star/financier of film, Tommy Wiseu. He is the focus of The Disaster Artist.

Structurally, The Disaster Artist is pretty familiar. It's the story of a regular guy, Greg (played by Dave Franco) getting sucked into the orbit of a charismatic enigma, Tommy Wiseu (played by James Franco). Greg and Tommy both dream of making it in Hollywood. Greg is fascinated by Tommy, because, despite all his eccentricities, Tommy is fearless and impulsive: two things Greg is not. Tommy is also much older than he claims, not from New Orleans or even America, and apparently flush with cash. After repeatedly being told he would never make it in Hollywood, Tommy decides to make his own movie, a drama about an all-American guy who is betrayed by the woman he loves, which eventually becomes The Room. The Disaster Artist is about Tommy the same way that the first Pirates movie is about Captain Jack (or maybe The Great Gatsby is a better literary example). It's really Greg's story about Tommy. The film rarely gets in Tommy's head. He's an enigma to be solved, and that's the right way to approach it. After all, this movie is about the man who made The Room, not the making of The Room.

However, as the only notable accomplishment of Wiseu's career, the making of The Room is a significant portion of the film. Everything about The Disaster Artist is in service to knowledge of The Room. In fact, I recommend watching all the extras you can on the Room DVD. The more you know about The Room, the more you'll find to enjoy about The Disaster Artist. For example, in The Disaster Artist, they show the filming of a deleted scene from The Room that doesn't show up in the final cut. Had I not known that this was a deleted (technically alternate) scene, I would've been distracted and begun questioning the accuracy of the movie. The Disaster Artist is filled with Easter eggs and callbacks that range from simple fan service to truly inspired. I suppose you could still enjoy the movie with little or no knowledge of The Room, but it means the difference between a chuckle and a belly laugh. Why deprive yourself of a belly laugh?

I really can't oversell how great James Franco is in this role. He's the perfect mix: a serious actor who can play straight comedy and loves to experiment. After all, this is the guy who had a recurring part as a serial killer on General Hospital for a while just because he thought it would be fun. You could argue that he's established himself as the Hollywood-approved version of Tommy Wiseu in a lot of ways. So, it's no surprise that he nails the role. He mimics Wiseu's look and speech pattern without it coming off like he's making fun of Wiseu, which is staggeringly difficult to do. He humanizes Wiseu. He turns him into a dreamer and it's that earnestness that really makes me love the movie. That goes a long way with me. It's what pushes a movie like Bowfinger (which I see a lot of in The Disaster Artist) from a pretty good comedy to one of my favorite movies. They say that no one could make a movie like The Room on purpose as a comedy. If you did, you'd get Sharknado. To make The Room special, it had to be the result of a man putting all his effort into making something he believed in. Similarly, The Disaster Artist doesn't work if it's just making fun of Wiseu and The Room. It has to have some empathy as well. While the rest of the cast is fine, that rests entirely on James Franco's shoulders as both the star and director. I've always liked Franco a lot, but this movie has finally pushed him into my very top tier.

I should get to the rest of the cast though, because it's large and filled with familiar faces doing good work. Dave Franco is the co-lead. He quietly has nearly as difficult a task as his brother. Greg genuinely likes Tommy and sees something in him that no one else does. Dave Franco finds a way to show that without making Greg look like a complete fool. Pretty much everyone else is the straight man to Tommy. The Disaster Artist is like watching a scripted version of Borat a lot of the time, and all the actors have a lot of fun with that. The "is this guy for real?" look is all over this movie. I especially liked Seth Rogen as the script supervisor who is amazed that a person like Tommy exists and sticks around just to see where this goes. Megan Mullally as Greg's mother gets a single scene which is a perfect encapsulation of how the world looks at Tommy. It's nice to see Alison Brie, but she has a fairly minor role as Greg's girlfriend. Part of the fun of The Disaster Artist is seeing who they cast to play the other actors in The Room, so I won't spoil those if you don't already know them. I was especially tickled by who they get for Chris R though,

It's difficult to sort my final thoughts about The Disaster Artist, so I'm going to lay out a few points and let you do with them what you will.

1. The Room is a terrible movie.
2. The Room should never be watched alone.
3. The Disaster Artist is a very good movie.
4. The Disaster Artist is a great movie if you've seen The Room.

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend