The Disaster Artist (2017)

I love this movie so much

Crappy film

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This is a vey enjoyable, well made movie about unbelievably real events in the Hollywood movie industry. James Franco did an amazing job playing Tommy Wiseau, a guy I could hardly believe existed for real.The baggy, ill-fitting, clothes, the weird accent, the long, black hair are reproduced to perfection, as are some of the scenes from the infamous "The Room" that roll with the end credits.Even if I don't live in the USA and the "The Room" never reached European screens, I could see bits and pieces online and I found them hilarious. I was therefore intrigued by this biography. But even if you are not familiar with the source material, this movie is thoroughly enjoyable.

The Disaster Artist is a movie made as a biography of another movie, The Room from 2003, a stinker that apparently became a cult movie because it was so bad. I didn't see the original, and I'm not planning to, as to me The Disaster Artist is a weak movie about an even weaker movie so what's the point of watching the other one? James Franco plays Tommy Wiseau, the director/writer/actor from The Room, a weird guy that wants to look excentric but in fact is just a random weirdo not worth mentioning. The character is annoying to watch, I don't say James Franco didn't a good job playing him, he probably did a good job imitating a boring guy. The story isn't funny, and isn't good enough to waste your time with it. Weird can be good but in this case it just isn't.

A loving Hollywood take on an unlikely friendship and the story of making The Room, a film so bad it's frequently referred to as 'the Citizen Kane of bad movies'.It never feels like the team behind The Disaster Artist are bullying or mocking Tommy Wiseau, the man behind The Room and played by James Franco in this affectionate story of its creation. They come close a couple of times and it certainly doesn't paint him in a positive light overall, but it shows him to be a driven man with little talent and a big dream ... if no one will hire him to be in a film then he'll make his own.James Franco transforms himself convincingly and lovingly into Wiseau - he nails the laugh and the way Tommy would brush his long hair out of his eyes - while his brother Dave Franco plays co-star and close friend Greg Sistero (who wrote the book of the same name on which The Disaster Artist is based, so the specifics of each scene should be taken with more than just a pinch of salt). Seth Rogen has a secondary role as the original script supervisor (and later the unofficial de-facto director) while other familiar faces such as Sharon Stone, Zac Efron and Bryan Cranston all make brief cameo appearances.All the key scenes are referenced ("Cheep cheep cheep!", "I definitely have breast cancer" and the anatomically inaccurate sex scene(s) to name a few) if not in the film itself then in the side-by-side comparisons between the 'remake' and the original classic before the end credits roll. Speaking of the credits, this is one film where it's actually worth sticking around to see the post-credits scene in which the real Tommy Wiseau has a strange conversation with Franco's incarnation.It certainly helps to have seen the 'source material' to fully appreciate some scenes but even if you haven't, the jokes and observations made about the resulting film are echoed on the set as they would've been by the audience watching the film for the first time. The Disaster Artist could so easily have been scene after scene of remaking and mocking the original's ineptitude but instead it's a loving tribute to the drive of one man to do anything in his power to follow his dream and become a star.

I was surprised to Jacki Weaver in this film but she was brilliant playing Carolyn/Claudette in this film. James Franco would have definitely been a front-runner for an Academy Award for Best Actor. He directed, produced and acted as Tommy Wiseau, an aspiring actor from unknown background. Greg Sestero befriends him in San Francisco and they go South to Los Angeles, California. Tommy's background is a mystery even to Greg. The film is based on the actual room, "The Room," which became a cult hit. Tommy Wiseau is not an easy character but James Franco brings out the best and worst in him that you actually feel sorry for this man. Granted, Tommy's behavior on the set is quite troubling. He can be abusive and unforgiving. While "The Room" was never an Academy Award quality style film, Tommy and Greg set to make out a film which became a cult classic around the world. That is quite an accomplishment. I have to see "The Room" now though. The film celebrates film-making from the ultimate outsiders like Tommy and Greg who proved that they can break through.