The Disaster Artist (2017)

I've never been truly comfortable with the phenomenon that is The Room, popularly referred to as the "worst movie ever made." The idea that one gets their enjoyment from watching someone fail at something so badly, to essentially laugh at them, is difficult for me to appreciate. People make whatever excuses they need to, usually involving the way writer/director/producer Tommy Wiseau's embracing of that cult status, his capitalization of it, as making it okay to laugh at someone who appears to be ill. But these excuses never make sense to me. Go to any screening, watch anyone react. The point is to point and laugh. That just feels incredibly icky.

I was wondering how a film about the making of the "worst film every made." would feel. Would it explore Wiseau's journey, make us understand who he is and why he did what he did? Well it turns out no. The film The Disaster Artist, told from the perspective of Wiseau's friend and costar Greg Sestero, who is clearly the attractive and heroic one we are supposed to relate to, presents Wiseau as an enigma, and not a sympathetic one. No our sympathies lie with Sestero who is such a nice guy for putting up with the horrible Tommy, he endures Wiseau and then makes his success off him.

Watching The Disaster Artist made me feel somewhat complicit in this alienation of a man who starts out the story rejected by society and ends up rejected on a much higher level, and fortunately makes money off it. The Disaster Artist never attempts to tell the outsider's story. This is the suffering of the friend of the outsider. The outsider remains outside, remains the guy we keep around so that we can feel cool about how sophisticated we are for laughing at him.

The Disaster Artist recreates much of The Room's incredibly poorly made scenes. Franco, as director and star, adopts the mimic style of performance. His Wiseau isn't multilayered. He is a caricature. Perhaps the real Wiseau is just that opaque as to not allow any reflection or examination. But that doesn't mean it's interesting.  Just like he films his film as a copy of The Room, he plays the part as a copy. Franco does a competent job of telling this story and The Disaster Artist remains interesting all the way through. But as the film comes to its conclusion where the premiere crowd is cheering for Wiseau to blow his brains out ("do it! do it!"), and Sestero encourages Wiseau to go up and embrace it, I had real mixed feelings about all of it.

It comes down to what is the point of this. Are we just supposed to laugh at Tommy Wiseau even more? Are we really laughing "with" him? Cause it doesn't feel like it. It mostly feels cruel.

The Disaster Artist
Starring: James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogan, Alison Brie, Ari Greynor, Josh Hutchinson, Jacki Weaver, Zac Efron, Hannibal Buress, Sharon Stone, Melanie Griffith
Director: James Franco
Writers: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber