The Disaster Artist Parent Guide

Greg (Dave Franco) has been struggling to break out in his acting classes. But when he sees Tommy (James Franco) cut loose in a re-enactment of “A Streetcar Named Desire”, Greg sees an opportunity to learn from a fearless actor who’s unencumbered by the kind of anxiety he experiences on stage. The two become fast friends, move to Los Angeles, and try to make a career of it… but L.A. just isn’t ready for Tommy’s “talents”. Discouraged but not ready to give up, Tommy hatches a plan: if they can’t get cast in anything, Tommy will write, direct, and produce their own film.

Tragically, this is all, more or less, a true story. Based on Greg Sestero’s autobiography of the same title, The Disaster Artist recounts the making of a film which has been described as “the Citizen Kane of bad movies”. How do you make a good movie out of one of the worst of all time?

Casting helps. James Franco is unbelievable as the inimitable Tommy Wiseau – which works. Actual footage of Tommy Wiseau is so bizarre that I’m not entirely convinced that he isn’t an alien. Fortunately, James Franco is also reasonably odd, and when he leans into it, the resulting chaos feels about right for the enigmatic Wiseau. The rest of the cast, thankfully, recognizes that James Franco is using the entire “weird” budget, and sticks to playing the (collective) straight man.

What’s really impressive is the filmmakers’ dedication to recreating scenes from the original film. They overlay the original next to the remade scenes as the credits roll, and it’s downright uncanny. If I took my glasses off, I probably couldn’t tell you which one was which. It’s actually not a bad way to watch The Room without having to sit through all 99 surreal minutes of the original – this way, you just get the highlights.

Given that the original film was rated R, there was little chance that The Disaster Artist would avoid similar problems, the most unpleasant of which is the catastrophic sex scene. This features near-complete male nudity, nasty commentary, and a general aura of greasy unpleasantness. In fairness, the film addresses all of those as unacceptable and problematic, but it’s still uncomfortable to watch. The only other real problem is the profanity, which is extensive. In many instances it feels unmotivated, with characters just swearing to spice up the dialogue.

This isn’t a family film, and neither is The Room. But if you can tolerate a fair bit of cussing, it’s also a hysterical look at the making of one of the strangest films ever to grace a cinema. It’s an interesting recipe for success: excellent casting, fun writing, and truly bizarre source material. Let’s just hope no one makes a movie about the making of this movie…that’s one recursion too many.