SYNOPSIS:
With The Disaster Artist, takes tragicomic true-story of aspiring filmmaker and infamous Hollywood outsider Tommy Wiseau—an artist whose passion was as sincere as his methods were questionable—into a celebration of friendship, artistic expression, and dreams pursued against insurmountable odds.
Based on Greg Sestero’s best-selling tell-all about the making of Tommy’s cult-classic “disaster piece” The Room (“The Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made”).
REVIEW:
The Disaster Artist, a biographical comedy/drama based on the making of the cult 2003 film "The Room" (which is widely referred to as the worst movie ever made) is better than it has any right to be. Thankfully in the case of The Disaster Artist, it's title proves to be ironic too given how enjoyable the movie was.
The Disaster Artist stars James's brother Dave Franco (Neighbors, Now You See Me) as Greg Sestero, Seth Rogen (the Neighbors and Kung Fu Panda films) as Sandy Schklair, Alison Brie (Mad Men, GLOW) as Amber, Ari Graynor (For a Good Time, Call…) as Juliette Danielle, Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games films) as Philip Haldiman and Academy Award nominee Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom, Silver Linings Playbook) as Carolyn Minnott.
While based on another movie, The Disaster Artist does not come with the prerequisite of having seen "The Room", as the gaps of knowledge about the film are filled in.
The Disaster Artist is a weird film, which makes a lot of sense given James Franco's artistic sensibilities, however, despite that, it's one very good movie.
One the reasons that the The Disaster Artist echoes the zaniness of "The Room" is with Franco having cast his close friends and family in the movie. Alison Brie, who is married to Dave Franco in real life, plays the girlfriend of Dave's character Greg Sestero. All of who were directed by James Franco, while he stayed in character as the film's lead Tommy Wiseau.
The supporting characters in the film, really build out the world, and give a lot of depth to the main characters such as Tommy, despite the level of mystery that the character is shrouded in.
The movie is extremely funny and emotive detailing it's struggle of Tommy Wiseau, which is impressively portrayed on screen by James Franco. Given his performance, it is understandable why he won Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy at the 2018 Golden Globes. However despite his good performance, he did not make the cut for the Oscars.
This image released by NBC shows James Franco, center, embracing his brother Dave Franco as he accepts the award for best actor in a motion picture comedy or musical for his role in "The Disaster Artist," as Tommy Wiseau, left, looks on at the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2018. (Paul Drinkwater/NBC via AP)
The movie also does an uncanny job of recreating scenes of "The Room" with a frightening level of specificity, which is seen during the end credits when scenes that James Franco filmed playing alongside actual scenes from "The Room".
The Disaster Artist is in many ways a love letter to the worst movie ever made, and a love letter to other artists whose dreams for stardom, have ended in failure; but it's for that very reason of tackling themes of friendship, artistic expression and dreams pursued against insurmountable odds with such love that makes The Disaster Artist worth the viewing.
Rating: 18LNS
Running Time: 104 Minutes
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