The Disaster Artist

The Disaster Artist, 2017
Directed by James Franco

The Disaster Artist is the true story re-telling of the making of the movie The Room. The Room, since it's release in 2003, has become a cult classic for being an incredibly terrible movie. However, filmmaker Tommy Wiseau (writer, director, star and producer) and his best friend Greg Sestero didn't intend it to be so bad. But the drama behind the scenes makes for a compelling (and hilarious) film.

I'm going to keep this brief and basically just praise James Franco. This is some incredibly immersive work here and I wouldn't even be mad if he won Best Actor. Seriously. Franco as Wiseau is incredible to watch. He's able to embody Wiseau without making it a parody or disrespectful of the man. You can tell he was very passionate about this project and about getting Wiseau right. It's also an incredibly hilarious performance but it's by far his best performance I've seen from him.

The entire film itself walks that fine line of not making this film into a parody. Franco and the screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber balance everything so finely. They allow us to laugh at Wiseau and the drama behind his making of The Room, but not too much. And they leave us able to sympathize for this man and to feel his pain at being ridiculed. We've all been outsiders in our life, and this is the story about an insider trying to become an insider using his own (misguided) means.

The Disaster Artist is an incredibly smart, compelling and hilarious film about a young man wanting to make it in acting and the friend he meets in acting class who has the confidence but lacks the talent and them deciding to fund their own film after years of Hollywood rejection. Tommy is mysterious and has an ego and so the filmmaking experience becomes a nightmare. However, it lead to one of the biggest cult films in history. Definitely go check out this film if you have a chance. You will be astounded at how good James Franco is in this!

9/10