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Review: The Disaster Artist (2017) ★★★★

<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Like most people who watched <em>The Room<&sol;em> &lpar;2003&rpar;&comma; I found myself completely fascinated with Tommy Wiseau&comma; the enigmatic star and mastermind behind the film&period; When I found out there was a book written about the making of <em>The Room <&sol;em>called <em>The Disaster Artist<&sol;em>&comma; and then a comedic film based on said book&comma; it served as validation of every thought I had while watching what many have dubbed &&num;8220&semi;the best worst film ever made&period;&&num;8221&semi; This title could not be more apt&period; It is a truly horrible&comma; misguided&comma; perplexing film&comma; but it is also the most fun I have ever had watching a movie &lpar;I can only imagine that the lively midnight showings are even better&rpar;&period; However&comma; I had my reservations about James Franco’s vision and reasoning behind making the film&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">As I stated in <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;wp&period;me&sol;p8zIUb-hR">my review of <em>The Room<&sol;em><&sol;a>&comma; it is very clear to just about anyone who sees the film that there is something not quite right about Tommy Wiseau&period; Sure&comma; he looks a bit odd and&comma; as his detractors in <em>The Disaster Artist<&sol;em> put it&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;villainous&comma;” and yes his accent is funny and sometimes unintelligible&comma; but there is something much deeper that invites real sympathy for the man&period; He is not a bad guy&semi; there are hints of mental illness&comma; and certainly deep-seeded insecurities present&comma; which makes him even more pitiable&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">It was for this reason that I doubted the sincerity of <em>The Disaster Artist<&sol;em>&period; How much of <em>The Disaster Artist<&sol;em> is true&quest; It&&num;8217&semi;s impossible to say&semi; but Franco has made a career out of relatively low-brow comedies&comma; and though he has ventured into more serious territory from time to time&comma; it looked as though he was sinking to a new low by mocking someone who had already endured about as much mocking as a person can take&period; Thankfully&comma; <em>The Disaster Artist<&sol;em> takes a middle-of-the-road approach&comma; allowing for both hilarious comedy and genuine melancholy&comma; with James Franco giving one of the best performances of his career as Tommy Wiseau&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">The film opens with a series of familiar comedic actors providing their two-cents about the inherent genius of <em>The Room<&sol;em>&comma; and how one can’t help but be fascinated with Tommy after watching it&period; After this brief introduction&comma; we meet Greg Sestero &lpar;Dave Franco&rpar;&comma; the author of the film&&num;8217&semi;s source material and&comma; at the time&comma; a young aspiring actor living with his mom in San Fransisco&period; One night while attending an amateur acting workshop&comma; Greg encounters Tommy&comma; whose erratic behavior and apparent shamelessness fascinate him&period; Greg suffers from a lack of confidence in his own acting abilities&comma; so&comma; in an effort to learn from Tommy’s self-confidence&comma; strikes up an unlikely friendship with him&period; Even though Greg asks all the right questions&comma; he never finds out how old Tommy is&comma; where he comes from&comma; or how he makes his seemingly endless stream of money&period; When Tommy reveals that he has a second apartment in Los Angeles&comma; the two move out to Hollywood to fulfill their mutual dream of becoming famous actors&period; However&comma; when neither of their acting careers turn out as they had hoped&comma; Tommy decides to make his own movie&comma; and make it with his one and only friend&comma; Greg&period; Though Greg has immediate reservations about the script&comma; he holds his tongue&comma; and the two set off to make the best worst movie ever made&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;1253" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-1253" style&equals;"width&colon; 850px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-1253" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;01&sol;hero&lowbar;Disaster-Artist-2017-300x125&period;jpg" alt&equals;"James Franco I did not hit her" width&equals;"850" height&equals;"354" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-1253" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">James Franco is superb as Tommy Wiseau &lpar;The Disaster Artist&comma; 2017&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">In order to really enjoy <em>The Disaster Artist<&sol;em> to the fullest extent&comma; viewers should watch <em>The Room<&sol;em> first&period; Of course&comma; you can understand the comedy of James Franco’s performance and see the inherent humor of the real-life events as they unfold&comma; but it doesn’t capture the amazement one feels when experiencing&comma; or even thinking about or discussing a film like <em>The Room<&sol;em>&comma; or a person like Tommy Wiseau&period; Though the film doesn’t address every single oddity from <em>The Room<&sol;em> &lpar;I never remember them talking about the random pictures of spoons that people have found so amusing&rpar;&comma; so many of the questions that I found myself blurting out during <em>The Room<&sol;em> are blurted out by various characters in <em>The Disaster Artist<&sol;em>&comma; which I found to be incredibly satisfying and validating&period; It honestly produces a weird sense of community with other spectators&comma; and even seeks to bridge the gap between audience and filmmaker&period; You can tell that James Franco wants us to get the same feeling that he must have felt when watching <em>The Room<&sol;em> for the first time&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">From a technical standpoint&comma; <em>The Disaster Artist<&sol;em> is on par with just about any other of Franco’s comedies&comma; but as far as his directing ability&comma; it shows serious improvement from some of his earlier endeavours&period; Although Dave Franco’s performance is noticeably lackluster&comma; it sort of mirrors the real life abilities of struggling actor Greg Sestero&period; Based solely on his performance in <em>The Room<&sol;em>&comma; he was not a good actor&comma; so it stands to reason that Dave Franco would want to replicate this fact&comma; but perhaps I’m giving him too much credit&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Another aspect of the film that makes it more enjoyable for those who have already seen <em>The Room<&sol;em> is the incredible attention to detail&period; The filmmakers go to great lengths to reproduce every terrible &lpar;but brilliant&rpar; nuance from the original&comma; from the timing of certain lines down to the horrible sound design and bizarre staging&semi; even the casting is superb&period; Josh Hutcherson is spot-on as Philip Haldiman&comma; the actor who played Denny&comma; the boyish surrogate son to Tommy&comma; a role that he was much too old to play&period; Ari Granyor is similarly well-cast as Juliette Danielle&comma; the actress who portrayed Tommy’s unfaithful love interest in the film&period; Even without the fantastic casting&comma; <em>The Room<&sol;em> is reenacted to perfection&semi; but the best part is getting to see all of the drama and chaos that went on behind the scenes&period; It sheds so much light on the original film&comma; making you want to go back and rewatch a film that already begs to be rewatched again and again&period; Seeing Tommy come down with a case of stage fright&comma; and then get aggressive and defensive to the point of absurdity is hilarious&comma; and honestly makes so much sense after watching <em>The Room<&sol;em>&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Though <em>The Disaster Artist<&sol;em> could never hope to be as ridiculously fun as <em>The Room<&sol;em>&comma; it comes about as close as a well-made film ever could&period; After watching the film&comma; you will probably be asking yourself&colon; just how accurate is <em>The Disaster Artist<&sol;em>&quest; Based on first-hand accounts and interviews with Tommy Wiseau&comma; it seems relatively accurate&semi; and James Franco didn’t make the film to be purely about mockery&comma; but instead made it to tell the story of a strange loner who had a dream to be a big star&comma; and&comma; despite everyone telling him he would never succeed&comma; came out a winner&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Rating&colon; <&sol;span><span class&equals;"s2">&starf;&starf;&starf;&starf;<&sol;span><span class&equals;"s1"> out of 5<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1"><em>The Disaster Artist<&sol;em> is available to purchase <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B077THGZTS&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;sp&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;camp&equals;1789&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B077THGZTS&amp&semi;linkId&equals;54730b3155defa1013507dd3816756c1">via Amazon here<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Additionally&comma; <em>The Room<&sol;em> is available to purchase <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B000CFYAMC&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;sp&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;camp&equals;1789&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B000CFYAMC&amp&semi;linkId&equals;cea1723a4f5f682d91835c8e69e01f66">here<&sol;a>&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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