First Hit: This is a very out loud funny film.
I’ve never seen The Room which has a reputation of being the worst film to ever be released. The basis of The Disaster Artist is about the making of The Room. Tommy (James Franco) plays Tommy Wiseau an odd person who seems to have unlimited funds, has a very peculiar accent, and would like to be an actor. Our first introduction to him is when he gets in front of an acting class and dramatically over does a scene. The looks on the other acting students’ faces? Priceless.
Contrarily Greg (Dave Franco) is in the same acting class and he freezes and cannot emote in front of his classmates. So, Greg reaches out to Tommy and asks him if he would help him learn to emote. The scene in the restaurant where the first lesson happens is hilarious.
Because they both want to be actors and do not see an opportunity, they decide to make a film together. Tommy ends up writing, directing, producing, financing and starring in this film called The Room.
They hire a team of people including actors for the film. Tommy, in the lead role of Johnny, gives Greg a major part as Mark. To play Johnny’s love interest, Tommy hires Juliette (Ari Gaynor) to play the role of Lisa. Additionally, he hires Carolyn (Jackie Weaver) as Claudette, Lisa’s mom. As someone to guide the actors with the script and help Tommy direct the film, Tommy hires Sandy (Seth Rogen) who has experience in filmmaking.
The rest of the film is about the poorly acted and scripted scenes of making this film, The Room. The difficulties of working with Tommy and worse, his unclear vision, are filled with hilarious scenes. Although Greg and Tommy are friends, this friendship gets tested in both the acting scenes as well as the scenes where Greg decides to live with his girlfriend Amber (Alison Brie).
Do I want to see the room? I’m not sure because just prior to the credits the film shows scenes from the initial film, The Room, next to the same scenes from this film of filming the room. I was struck about how close the scenes were done and now think that seeing The Room won’t enhance my overall moving going experience. This is because I don’t think I’d act like the audience in the film’s opening night.
James Franco was fantastic as Tommy. I loved how he gave this character an air of otherworldliness. Dave Franco was great. I loved his enthusiasm towards the character and giving this role a wonderful appeal. Weaver was really good. I loved her line about her announcing that she has cancer never appears again in The Room. Brie is wonderful as Greg’s supportive girlfriend. Gaynor is engaging as the film’s love interest. Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber wrote an ingenious script to capture the story of the creation of the film The Room. James Franco did an excellent job of putting a very funny story together by getting strong situational comedic performances out of the actors.
Overall: This was probably the funniest film I’ve seen this year.