162.
The Disaster Artist
8/10
This movie is based around the real-life events of two men named, Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero. Greg wrote a book about the events, which we are about to witness in this movie. The plot centre around these two men trying to make it in Los Angeles as actors, until Tommy decides to make his own movie and star in it, alongside Greg. His film, The Room, would come out in 2003 and be one of the biggest flops in cinema history. That is until a cult following and the rumours circling around this movie, would lead people to research and watch The Room, so that they knew what they were letting themselves in for. I still haven't seen The Room, but hopefully after seeing this, I will have a much better understanding of what went on. Fingers crossed that this isn't as much of a disaster.
This movie is going to be quite a hard one to review and maybe even my shortest review yet. This isn't a bad thing, but because it's a kind of behind the scenes, reconstruction of what was happening, there is no real need to go too much into depth. James Franco plays Tommy, as his real-life brother, Dave Franco, plays Greg. The film begins in 1996 when Greg is in a drama class, but is too nervous to act. He sees Tommy, playing his way through a scene without a care in the world, before walking off home. He follows him to stop him, asking to do a scene together because he knows he can learn from him and we instantly see that this Tommy guy is a little weird. Not long after, have the two become really close friends and Tommy suggests that they both move to LA in order to pursue acting careers.
Once they arrive there, it's safe to say that Greg is a lot more successful, mainly down to the fact that he actually has talent. He even finds himself a girl, which instantly has bad effect on Tommy. He believes that Greg owes him more for giving him this chance. Mainly down to jealousy on all fronts, Tommy starts to get snippy. If no one will employ Tommy, he will take matters into his own hands, writing his own screenplay, where he offers Greg a role, along with an associate producer credit. Tommy, who somehow has a bottomless pit of money, insists on buying all of the filming equipment, rather than simply renting it. He also employs a team to work with during filming. Everything starts smoothly, but we soon realise that Tommy is extremely hard to work with. Turning up late, not sorting basic things out, such as water, for the crew, embarrasses the actress that he stars in a sex scene with ad although he has given himself the leading role, he keeps forgetting his own lines. He even has a guy going around, filming the behind the scenes moments, which he watches back and realises that many of the people aren't supporting his vision, not even Greg.
Away from the set, Greg and his girlfriend Amber, bump into Bryan Cranston, who invites Greg to be a small part in Malcolm in the Middle. He needs him and the beard he has grown for a part as a lumberjack and when Tommy finds out about this, he isn't too happy and even asks him to shave his beard off for the new scenes that they are doing. This actually didn't happen in real life. There was no offer from Cranston but instead the beard was something that Greg wanted to keep, thinking of it as his new identity. He was made to shave it though and claimed that Tommy was selfish during their friendship, even questioning him face to face about his real age and origins.
Six months later and Greg is now single again. Tommy invites him to the premiere of their movie, to which to their surprise, the whole cast and crew are there too. The cinema is pretty full and at first the audience reacts with horror, which soon turns to laughter, causing Tommy to leave. Greg chases him, telling him that they laughter is a success in his eyes, turning the reaction on its head. He re-enters the screening, ready to take credit for his 'comedic' performance, to which he receives a standing ovation. The movie ends with side by side scenes from the movie The Room and this remake of the scenes, showing how remarkably close, Franco's adaption was to the real thing.
This was a great movie to watch for a mixture of reasons. It may be hard to believe that there is such a guy as Tommy, but after seeing him on numerous TV slots, even simply standing there as Franco got his Golden Globe, you can see that this guy is away with the fairies. For James Franco to get the seal of approval from him, he must have been doing something right. It was full of comedy, which at times, it's hard to distinguish whether it was real events, or something that was fabricated for this movie. It's quite a weird experience to watch a movie about a movie being made and knowing that this will be a lot more successful only adds to its novelty. I recently found out that they are planning on giving The Room a run in cinemas once more, by popular demand. It is far from a mockery of a man, but more of a celebration of a different style of being. Still to this day, no one knows Tommy's age, origin or where he got his fortune.
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