The Disaster Artist
When I took my seat for The Disaster Artist, I prepared myself for 104 minutes of pure mockery. James Franco stars as Tommy Wiseau, director, producer and leading man of The Room, otherwise known as ‘the worst film ever made’. The Room features absurd acting decisions, non-sequitur dialogue and painfully long sex scenes. This was a film crying out to be parodied, and who better to do it than James Franco, whose ‘diss list’ already ranges from Kanye West to Kim Jong-un?
For those cult fans who just want to see their favourite scenes re-enacted by some of the funniest people in Hollywood, you certainly won’t be disappointed. However, The Disaster Artist runs deeper than just parody; Franco shows us the man before The Room. An aspiring actor with dreams of becoming the next James Dean but deemed too ‘malevolent’ to play anything but a villain, Wiseau decided to give up on Hollywood and make his own movie. We see the horrific conditions of the shoot, which in many ways were more appalling than the film itself. We also learn how much the film meant to Wiseau. Not just the lavish indulgence of a man with more money than he could spend, The Room was a serious drama intended for the Academy Awards, but instead became one of the biggest jokes in cinema history.
James Franco gives his best performance to date in The Disaster Artist. In his eerily accurate portrayal of Wiseau, Franco poses the question: should we give up on our dreams just because we don’t have what it takes? Decide for yourself on Saturday 20th January, when The Disaster Artist screens at No. 6 Cinema.
by Mary Cohen