The Disaster Artist

[Replies From View]

I thought James Franco was good as Jim Carrey in Man in Man on the Moon.

[Bad Ambassador]

I saw Dave Franco in Greenwich when they were filming Now You See Me 2. He had a big coat on. No sign of his lovely wife.

[St_Eddie]

Why is James Franco putting his shit brother in the film? Why is James Franco making films at all?

$$$

I saw Dave Franco in Greenwich when they were filming Now You See Me 2. He had a big coat on.

Scandalous.

[colacentral]

I genuinely love The Room.  I don't agree with people saying it's only worth watching when you're at a screening or with a bunch of other people.  I've been to a couple screenings, and while they're certainly fun, they understandably only highlight the more obvious absurdities and if you aren't already familiar with it you'll miss out on a lot of the nuance (for lack of a better word) of just how bizarre it is.

Of course there are plenty of "so bad it's good" movies out there, and many of them are entertaining in their own way, but The Room (and his more recent work The Neighbors) is the closest I've come to finding something that genuinely seems as if it were made by an alien.  Unlike other movies which get mentioned in the same breath, it's not so much a case of someone aspiring to something big and failing due to lack of talent/resources (or, in the cases of things like Sharknado, aspiring to be exactly as tacky as it is), but more a case of someone who fundamentally doesn't understand humans and human interaction attempting to tell a story about exactly that.  Whereas a lot of these "bad movies" tend to be the result of ordinary people failing to successfully tell stories about extraordinary worlds (Plan 9, Troll 2, almost anything on MST3K), The Room is the result of someone extraordinary spectacularly failing to evoke the ordinary and mistakenly creating something completely surreal in the process.

Aside from Wiseau, the making of The Room is also a great story about a very real and very bleak world in Los Angeles, about delusion and failure and disappointment.  I'm not convinced Franco can relate to that in any meaningful way, having been almost instantly successful since his late teens.  The casting of his famous mates in almost every role is irritating in a way I can't be bothered to explain.  Admittedly I can't think of someone I'd want to make this film off the top of my head, but I don't think turning it into a fictional movie is worthwhile anyway.

I agree and I also think that alot of people who don't see what's funny about it are thinking that it will be entertainingly bad through the duration, when the reality is that the films which are "so bad they're good" are often painful to sit through, but you watch them for those key scenes, particular lines of dialogue, bizarre plot developments etc. You're not watching them in literally the same way you would watch a comedy, where the expectation is that 95% of the film is either a joke or a set up to a joke. You could condense the big laugh out loud moments of The Room down to 20 minutes probably, but I think you have to have a certain sense of humour, almost masochistic, to derive joy from sitting through films that are truly terrible.

Some of my favourite MST3K episodes are the films where virtually nothing happens: Monster A-Go-Go and Red Zone Cuba spring to mind; whereas I think most people would gravitate towards the more noisy, colourful films, like Hobgoblins, where it's really quite overtly cheesy and over the top. But the experience of sitting through Monster A-Go-Go, where virtually nothing happens for the duration, to get to the ending where the narrator informs the audience that "there was no monster," ie we couldn't afford to film an ending so fuck you, scratches a particular funny itch with me that not alot of other stuff can.

[Mini]

Having just seen The Disaster Artist at a Cineworld preview, I'm sorry to report that this thread's worst fears are all true. It's a revisionist version of events that turns Greg Sestero into a delusional imbecile and makes it all about James Franco and his friends. I've reviewed it here if you're interested, but it's pretty much as you doom-mongers done monged.

[St_Eddie]

Adam Johnston of the outstanding YouTube channel, Your Movie Sucks, has put his review and shares some of @Mini's reservations, though he liked it overall...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cj5pmZzF3M

[Noodle Lizard]

Despite my strong, stated suspicions about this being shit I reckon, I'm actually a little surprised to hear about some of those plot changes.  I figured they'd at least mostly be faithful to the (true) story.

[Mini]

I was surprised too. The book works because Greg is a normal bloke who never really trusts Tommy and is constantly flummoxed by his behaviour. He's a regular person and we can relate to him. Even if you're happy to completely change the character of the guy who wrote the source material, that seems like a pretty good reason not to. But the writers of 500 Days of Summer and The Fault in Our Stars don't seem to share this wisdom.

[Noodle Lizard]

Wiseau joined James Franco for an interview on Jimmy Kimmel recently.  Click if you want to watch him being treated like an experimental pet by Franco:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT1gOazMMm8

[imitationleather]

Is this flat-out not even worth bothering seeing, then? Daaaaaamn. There sure are a lot of unappealing films out at the mo.

Franco had built up a bit of goodwill after years of being on me shitlist after being perfectly passable in The Deuce, n'all.

[St_Eddie]

I reckon this film is the poster child for 'it's not as good as the book'.

[Head Gardener]

I thought it was great but didn't make me want to see The Room as the clips at the end credits were quite enough, thank you very much

[BritishHobo]

The big problem is it's just a barebones version of the book. They've taken the odd funny moment, but then glossed over almost everything else, and overexaggerated smaller moments to be pivotal. The book worked because of its structure; it was all about Greg and Tommy's friendship, but knew people wanted to read about The Room, so it a
alternated. This rushes through the background to get to the making of, but then it rushes that too. It feels like short extracts rather than a full story. Which is a shame, because the ups-and-downs of their relationship in the years before The Room, with Tommy coming and going, are what makes it so wonderful and strange. All the Talented Mr. Ripley stuff.

It misses out all the strangest, most interesting stuff from the book about the production - Tommy hiring someone else to play Mark but then stealth-using Greg by shooting each Mark scene a second time with Greg and lying that it's for his showreel, or the fact that he didn't pay anyone for ages until Greg had to basically force him to write cheques for everyone, or the scene in the script that they had to persuade him to change because it started with Lisa calling her mom on the phone and ended with her walking her mom to the front door - in favour of just explaining all the things that are funny in the film.

I dunno. I know it's hard to fit everything into a film, but it just feels like a highlights reel of a book that's great because of how full it is.

[checkoutgirl]

If you enjoy watching The Room at home on your own on DVD then good for you. But the wider point is that like Rocky Horror it was a commercial failure under conventional cinema release. And like Rocky Horror the cinema going audience picked up on its narrative problems and script issues and built their own cult around it. In my view films like that really come alive with an audience and are more fairly judged with that audience. Most people who wouldn't have the patience for a home viewing on their own would most likely have a good laugh in the crowd experience. Which is as it should be in my opinion.

The home alone experience would be more for the hardcore fans. The type who watch Troll 2 everyday or the insane nutters who watch Rocky Horror on their own at home. Totally valid but a much more niche approach.

[Repeater]

seein this tonight mark

[BritishHobo]

Hello Mark

[MoonDust]

I watched it last night and really liked it. But then again, I haven't read the book to compare it to.

[Hobo With A Shit Pun]

For some reason, the segment at the end, where original scenes are played alongside the shot-by-shot copies "made" in The Disaster Artist were even more hilarious than watching the Room, even though you'd have thought we'd be laughed out at the very notion by that time.

[MoonDust]

For some reason, the segment at the end, where original scenes are played alongside the shot-by-shot copies "made" in The Disaster Artist were even more hilarious than watching the Room, even though you'd have thought we'd be laughed out at the very notion by that time.

I can't help but feel this bit was also outtakes for bits they would have shown in the premier scene. Which made me wonder how much of the original film they replicated. Just those scenes we saw or did they just go "fuck it, might as well remake the whole thing."?

[touchingcloth]

Seen it? I've never even heard of it. I saw a review for it somewhere the other day where the headline described it as "a film about the making of the worst film ever" and assumed it was going to be about Ed Wood.

[Bad Ambassador]

Seen it? I've never even heard of it. I saw a review for it somewhere the other day where the headline described it as "a film about the making of the worst film ever" and assumed it was going to be about Ed Wood.

Having gleaned all necessary information, you then turned the page.

[up_the_hampipe]

93% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. With this and Sausage Party getting critical acclaim, I can only assume Seth Rogen holds regular dinner parties for reviewers.

[checkoutgirl]

I watched it last night and really liked it. But then again, I haven't read the book to compare it to.

Doesn't matter. The book has nothing to do with it if you haven't read the book. It shouldn't have anything to do with it even if you have read the book. It's a film. You liked it, great. I'm actually looking forward to seeing it. The average Cabber can be a bit picky when it comes to films so shitty reviews should be taken with a cup of salt.

[Shit Good Nose]

93% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. With this and Sausage Party getting critical acclaim, I can only assume Seth Rogen holds regular dinner parties for reviewers.

Know what?  I sat down to watch Sausage Party with REALLY low expectations.  And I actually quite enjoyed it.  Too long, for sure, but I still enjoyed it.

But then, as I've always said, I'm not as down on Rogen as most people seem to be.  I can think of plenty of others who are much less deserving of a similarly profiled Hollywood career.  Plus he hasn't raped or nonced anyone.  Yet.  That we know of.

[up_the_hampipe]

I don't mind Seth Rogen that much either, but Sausage Party was atrocious.

[colacentral]

93% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. With this and Sausage Party getting critical acclaim, I can only assume Seth Rogen holds regular dinner parties for reviewers.

I don't know why Rotten Tomatoes is used as any kind of barometer as their system doesn't work - if every review score was a mediocre 3/5 then the RT output would be 100% fresh. Metacritic is much more accurate (though still flawed in its own ways). I thought Metacritic would replace RT as the review aggregator everyone would refer to years ago but it's never happened, and I don't know why when RT is so patently useless

[popcorn]

I don't know why Rotten Tomatoes is used as any kind of barometer as their system doesn't work - if every review score was a mediocre 3/5 then the RT output would be 100% fresh. Metacritic is much more accurate (though still flawed in its own ways). I thought Metacritic would replace RT as the review aggregator everyone would refer to years ago but it's never happened, and I don't know why when RT is so patently useless

I think RT makes it just possible for a film to achieve 100% by setting the bar low. That generates more interest, because everyone wants that magic 100%-fresh movie.

It's sort of like how, in 90s game magazines, only the 90-100% range mattered - the difference between 90% and 98% was much bigger than 70% and 78% - even though that only demonstrated how fucked the entire rating system was.

Having said that, I think RT is useful simply because "a shitload of critics think a film isn't terrible" is still quite a useful thing to know. A big part of me hates ratings systems anyway; maybe when you boil them down the only useful thing they can say is "THIS FILM IS GOOD" or "THIS FILM IS BAD", and having a giant database that reduces all scores to that essential binary thing does appeal to me.

[Mini]

I work on a kind of -10 rule with Rotten Tomatoes. Minus 10 from every score and it's generally sensible.

[St_Eddie]

With this and Sausage Party getting critical acclaim, I can only assume Seth Rogen holds regular dinner parties for reviewers.

The reviewers come for the dinner parties but they stay for the blowjobs.  Actually, they come for them too.  Is that gag not tedious enough for you? Well, try this one on for size; Rogen's well known for throwing a Sausage Party or ten!

By 'sausage', I mean penis and by 'party', I mean a social gathering where people gather to celebrate and generally be social with one another, whilst munching on cheese squares and cocktail sausages. The potential joke involving said cocktail sausages is far too obvious, so I won't bother.  Instead, I'll simply end this sentence with a full stop.

...Plus he hasn't raped or nonced anyone.  Yet.  That we know of.

How terrible things are, when this is a seen as a positive, as opposed to the default.  I'd shed a tear, if I weren't so very entirely devoid of a soul.

[Repeater]

Thought this was pretty decent, my girlfriend who hasn't seen The Room, absolutely loved it. Wanted to go see it again! She works in stage though so I imagine she got more out of it than I did.