| 54; 2.5 stars; B- | dir. James Franco | English | 104min | M18 |
Burning with a desire to be famous? Can’t act? Have six million to spare? Follow Tommy Wiseau’s footsteps, and make a film so bad that people consider it a work of genius.
James Franco’s biopic is a celebration of this success story, re-enacting its successful outcome in a breezy fashion. Based off Greg Sestero’s book of the same name, ‘The Disaster Artist’ chronicles the making of ‘The Room’, a 2003 cult film which lives in infamy as one of the worst films ever made. Tommy Wiseau (James Franco), an enigmatic and bizarre actor-wannabe, meets Sestero (played by Franco’s brother Dave) in Los Angeles, and the two begin collaborating on one of Wiseau’s screenplays.
Wiseau is inept, eccentric, and unkind. Yet his stubborn determination surpasses these limitations – he criticises those whom he thinks deride his vision, and resorts to costly and unnecessary measures to secure his footage. Sestero mostly accommodates, supporting his unduly generous friend (to him, at least), but ultimately comes into conflict with Wiseau’s persistent oddities.
Franco’s intention – to pay tribute to a cultural obsession over similar “trash movies” which ‘The Room’ subsequently spawned – is sadly overshadowed by a literal, uninteresting, and sometimes over-dramatised take on its titular character’s life. The artist’s motivations are rarely spelt out, beyond contempt for snobbish, elite Hollywood. While Wiseau is admittedly inscrutable, the film fails further in its rather condescending typification of his character as an obnoxious joke.
It is unlikely that ‘The Disaster Artist’, beyond some hilarious takes, will be appreciated by those without the unfortunate experience of having seen ‘The Room’. Much of it depicts behind-the-scenes footage reimagined, and reveals what was probably Franco’s desire to remake it minus the disastrous reception. Good for fun and laughter, but not much else.