Right, OK finally time for a brand new post and this is one I have certainly been meaning to get around to doing for some time since the release of the film this post will be about and the film in question is The Disaster Artist.
Now, the Disaster Artist of course was an acclaimed book that centred around the production of the cult movie "The Room" which is often considered as one of the worst films ever made, yet despite its awfulness, also remains one of the most entertainingly bad films of all time! So, this film is based on the events of the book and the friendship between Tommy Wiseau (the star, writer, director of The Room) and Greg Sestero, a young aspiring actor, who stars alongside Tommy in the film.
So, how does The Disaster Artist fair as an actual film??? Well, let's take a look!
And yep the usual warning is coming up...
SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!
STORY
So, the story begins in San Francisco where Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) is a 19 year old looking to get into acting but his lack of confidence in acting classes appears to hold him back. However, one night at a class, Greg witnesses one of the other class attendants, Tommy Wiseau (James Franco) do an over the top reading of Marlon Brando from "A Streetcar Named Desire". Greg, transfixed by Tommy's fearless approach, asks him if he would like to do an acting scene together to which Tommy agrees to. As the two of them become friends, Tommy suggests that they go to Los Angeles together to persue their acting careers, as Tommy has his own apartment.
As they reach LA, Greg manages to secure himself an agent and some auditions, however Tommy is not so successful as he faces rejection left, right and centre due to his bizarre accent and overall lack of acting ability. Feeling disheartened, Tommy ponders whether to give up his dream of acting but when Greg suggests "Maybe we should just make our own movie" Tommy instantly says "That's a great idea" and he sets about to start writing his own movie script.
Months later, Tommy having finished his screenplay, let's Greg read it and he reluctantly decides to sign on to play the other lead part of Mark (as Tommy will play the lead role of Johnny) and its not long before Tommy and Greg get their production under way. However as filming progresses, Tommy's erratic behaviour and frequent turning up late on set, not to mention inability to remember his own lines, soon takes its toll on the production crew and indeed even on his friendship with Greg....
THOUGHTS
The Disaster Artist as a film is a very entertaining and even charming comedy that does a great job at transposing the terrific book it is based on, to the big screen and it nicely depicts the friendship between Tommy and Greg throughout, with Tommy's outlandish personality and Greg's somewhat more timid nature, both in perfect contrast.
The film however does condense the book to quite a degree, as there are alot of details here that have been left out and also some of the more mean spirited moments from Tommy that feature in the book also don't make it into the movie. However, the film still does its bit when it comes to showing the playful, carefree side of Tommy's personality aswell as the darker and meaner side.
PERFORMANCES AND SOME NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: there might be some spoilers in this section!)
As for the performances, well the cast are all excellent here.
Starting with James Franco who is just great as Tommy Wiseau and he appears to be having a ball in this role as he manages to get Tommy's weird mannerisms down pat and even though he doesn't sound exactly like him, he still does a terrific job here and he does nail that infamous Wiseau laugh! But James even succeeds in showing Tommy not just to be something of an eccentric, egomaniac but also a rather sad and sympathetic soul with a very mysterious past, which he wants to no-one to know about (and the same goes for the real Wiseau too!).
James has plenty of his own highlights in the film here but I won't really mention them that much
here but I will name one or two, such as the scene where Tommy struggles to get his lines right in the scene on the rooftop where Johnny says "I did not hit her! Its bullshit! I did not her! I did not! Oh, hi Mark". So, in the scene time after time, Tommy walks out onto the rooftop set and pauses and says "Line!" or "What is line?!" and the script supervisor, Sandy (Seth Rogen) feeds him the line, growing ever more impatient every time until after 69 takes, Tommy eventually get's it right and whole crew shout out in relief! So, after that, Tommy and Greg hug each other and Tommy grins and says "OK, moving on now!".
Then there is the scene where Tommy, preparing to do one of his sex scenes with the actress, Juliette Danielle, playing the character Lisa and we see him stark naked walk onto set, with his penis wrapped in a paper sock! And as Greg says to Tommy "Tommy, dude, this really isn't necessary!" but Tommy insists "No, no! Very necessary! I need to show my ass to sell this picture!".
Another good scene comes just after Tommy orders Juliette off set during filming their sex scene because she has a pimple of her arm, which upsets Juliette and angers the crew and Greg. So, Greg complains to a naked Tommy that he's being too hard on Juliette and the crew and Tommy asks him "Stanley Kubrick, he nice to actors? Alfred Hitchcock? Let me tell you something, Greg. He do this movie, Birds! On this movie, he terrify actors. He locked them in room, he throw, he throw birds at them. Real birds! Nasty stuff. The actors, they crack every day. But this movie win every award. Is Mr. Hitchcock bad man? No. He great director!". Greg however angrily says back "Yeah, but he was an asshole, and I bet he didn't direct with his fucking dick out!".
Then there is the scene where Greg and his girlfriend, Amber (Alison Brie) invite Tommy out to dinner where Greg tells Tommy he will be moving out of Tommy's apartment, which disappoints and later angers Tommy. So, after Greg tells Tommy, Tommy goes quiet and says "What about movie?" but Greg tries to reassure him "Tommy, nothing's gonna change. I'll still see you on the movie set" and Tommy quietly says "I have to go to the bathroom" and he get's up and walks off and Greg sighs and says "Yeah OK, he took it well". However then we cut to a furious Tommy uplift a rubbish bin and throw it on the ground and he yells "AAGGGHHHH!!! EVERYBODY BETRAY ME!!!". Tommy then angrily pulls some newspapers out of a vending machine nearby and throws them away and he kicks the machine and he sits on the curb and says "Oww! I hurt my foot!".
And lastly there is the scene (SPOILER THIS TIME!!!) where they film the scene at the end of "The Room" where Johnny trashes the place and shoots himself and as they film it, Tommy shoots himself as Johnny but then he carries on doing the dry humping of Lisa's red dress. So, in the scene after Tommy his dry hump, Sandy shouts "Cut!" much to Tommy's annoyance, who says "No! Don't cut! Don't cut! Why you cut, Sandy?! This is great! This is real acting!". Sandy however then says "If you're gonna writhe around with a dress, maybe do it before you shoot yourself in the head and blow your brains out!" but Tommy says "I disagree!".
Dave Franco (James Franco's younger brother) is excellent also in his role as Greg Sestero, who befriends Tommy at an acting class and they go on to make "The Room" together as a film, but the film's production puts a strain on their friendship as it progresses. Dave at times even has a strong resemblance ti Greg Sestero and he plays the part very well and you get the sense of him being an amiable, mild mannered guy, who becomes friends with the crazy whirlwind that is Tommy Wiseau. Dave also dyed his hair for the role, which admittedly is probably one of the more odd looking aspects of his appearance in the film as Greg Sestero. That aside, Dave's performance is very good.
And I will mention only one of Dave's scenes and its the one near the end (SPOILER-ISH!!) where Greg confronts Tommy over his behaviour and mysterious nature on the last day of filming. So, as Tommy and Greg are being filmed, throwing a football at each other, Tommy asks Greg to be truthful and honest about his fears of failure and actings.
However, Greg get's angry with Tommy and confronts him and says "Yeah, good. Let's get real. Where were you born, Tommy?!" but Tommy defensively says "Greg, this is not part of scene" but Greg pushes him for an answer "Its a simple question" and Tommy answers "New Orleans. From the Bayou". Greg however mocks him and says to the film crew "You guys hear that?! This guy with this fuckin' accent is from "the Bayou."!!". Greg then pushes Tommy even more and angrily asks him "When were you born? What year, Tommy?!! Same year as me?! There is no fucking way you're in your 20's, all right?!! You are a fucking villain! Fucking Frankenstein-looking motherfucker!" and the two of them then fight each other and are restrained by the crew. Greg then after their struggle, get's up and shouts at Tommy "You ruined EVERYTHING!!! This movie better be fucking awesome!!" and Tommy, shaken, says quietly "It will be awesome".
Seth Rogen also does very well in his role as Sandy Schklair, the script supervisor on "The Room" who had quite a few run-ins with Tommy during the production but also tried to be the voice of reason when it came to the tensions during filming. The real life, Schklair actually apparently had to heavily re-word Wiseau's script to turn it into one that an audience would have had a better chance at undertstanding (probably due to Tommy's fractured English!).
Seth also doesn't overplay things here at all and keeps a fair bit of restraint in playing the role, which works very well for the part he plays. Seth also get's one of the film's best lines where we see Tommy perform one of the sex scenes with Juliette and while Tommy is in the middle of "doing it" he appears to be aiming for her belly button rather than her vagina. So, Seth peering at the monitor during the scene says quietly "Why is he having sex with her bellybutton? He knows where her vagina is, right???".
The rest of the cast all have smaller roles but they also do very well in their respective roles, so I will look at them briefly...
Ari Graynor is pretty good in her role as Juliette Danielle, the actress who plays, Lisa, and is Tommy's leading lady in the film. In the book Juliette actually did suffer some humiliation at the hands of Tommy, particularly during their sex scenes where Juliette's moles on her skin offended Tommy and he insisted that she get some make-up to cover them up. Ari doesn't actually resemble Juliette Danielle much either, although this is actually fairly consistent with the other actors in the film also and not just her.
Alison Brie also puts in a pretty good performance as Amber, Greg's girlfriend, who in the book actually had stronger feelings of animosity toward Tommy Wiseay but they are largely played down here as she actually appears more sympathetic toward and its only near the end of her scenes that she grows annoyed with Tommy. Brie herself in real life is married to Dave Franco, so its a rather neat piece of casting and at least they didn't have to look for to cast that role!
Jacki Weaver is also quite good in her role as Carolyn Minnott, who was the actress that played the role of Claudette in "The Room" and Jacki, apart from James Franco, is the only other performer that bears a good resemblance to the person they are playing.
Paul Scheer does well in his role as the first director of photography on "The Room" who was later replaced on the production by another DP. In fact, according to the book, I think there were three DPs with Scheer being replaced due to finding Tommy simply impossible to work with and the film depicts as being frustrated at Tommy no providing some provisions such as water on a very hot temperatured set.
Josh Hutcherson does not too badly with his role as Philip Halidman, who played the rol of Denny in "The Room". Although he bares no resemblance to the actor at all and his hair definitely looks like a pretty bad wig!
The film also features some cameo roles from other celebrities aswell such as Bryan Cranston as himself (who at the time of The Room's production, starred on "Malcolm in the Middle"). Sharon Stone also appears as Greg's agent, Iris Burton and Melanie Griffith also has a brief role as the acting class teacher that teaches the class Tommy and Greg attend.
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
As for the film's director, well its also its star as James Franco takes on double duty here and he does an excellent job here at the directorial helm and he clearly has much fondness for the source material and indeed for the film "The Room" itself. So, James certainly succeeds here in keeping the tone quite light hearted, providing plenty of laughs aswell also even succeeding in providing a poignant undercurrent to Tommy and Greg's real life friendship.
Moving onto the music, Dave Porter provides a good score here and it fits the tone of the film pretty well overall, however I wouldn't say it was overly memorable. Porter however also did write the music for the acclaimed TV series, Breaking Bad and most of his other work has been in TV, so this remains one of his rare film scores and overall its a pretty decent one.
FLAWS
As for the Disaster Artist's flaws...yeah it still does have some here and there although it doesn't have as many gaping flaws as the film it is based on!!!
I think for starters, the film leaves out alot of detail from the book and it certainly condenses quite alot of the events that happened during the production but I do appreciate of course they had to do that or else the film would have been too long! As the film has to deal with both the past and present narratives of Greg and Tommy becoming friends and struggling to make it in Hollywood and then going on to filming "The Room". So, yeah I would say there are certainly quite alot of details here that have been cut down, which in a way is a little disappointing but then again they needed to for time.
The film also does make one or two decisions that also clash with the book, such as the person that Tommy hired to video the film crew all day actually appears to be alot older here than the actual person Tommy got in real life, who was just a teenager, but here it appears to be a guy in his 30's! And it would have been good if they kept it a bit more consistent in terms of the details of the book in that regard.
There also some details in Tommy and Greg's time when they lived together in LA that would have also been good to have seen from the book, such as Tommy learning to try and "lose" his accent as he used tapes to try and do just that. Also, Tommy would stay up nearly all night, carrying out his unusual behaviour, which in turn kept Greg awake at times!
It would also have been nice to have seen Tommy and Greg film more of the film's last scenes, where Tommy and Greg did actually go out on production to capture some external shots of San Francisco and also film the "Hi, Doggie" scene. However this again is all condensed and cut down to just Tommy and Greg playing football in the park and the two of them having a go at each other.
The supporting characters and actors, such as Juliette Danielle, Robyn Paris and Philip Haldiman are also somewhat marginalised here somewhat a bit as the film makes more time for the leads than the others concerned in the production. However at the same time, the main focus of the film is Tommy and Greg and to be fair, the film does have alot of ground to cover.
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum up, The Disaster Artist is a very enjoyable and even at times poignant film that perfectly captures (albeit condenses) the production of "The Room" and also the unusual friendship of Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero, as the two of them support each other, yet also have their struggles and tensions. And its clear that James Franco had alot of love for the project and it certainly comes across in his performance as he is terrific as Tommy Wiseau and inhabits the man's character from the very start and he is ably backed up by his younger brother, James Franco in the role of Greg Sestero.
The film's only real crime however is that does tone down some of Tommy's erratic behaviour to an extent, which was even more extreme in the book and also some of the events of the production that weren't shown here that feature in the book would have been good to have included.
However all that aside, this film is definitely well worth checking out and does a great job in looking at one of the best worst films ever made.
Right, so that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post or other.
Till then its bye for now!
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