The Room is a 2003 cult film that has been referred to as Garbage, The Citizen Kane of Bad Films, and Trash Cinema. As an owner of the film myself, I'll say it is bizarrely watchable, nonsensical and the cinematic equivalent of an ear-worm. Once you've seen it, the movie just sticks with you and the more you try to explain its appeal to others the crazier you seem.
Based on the book The Disaster Artist: My Life inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell, the film follows the friendship of the two leads of The Room, Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero, from meeting in an acting class through their experiences trying to find work in Hollywood and finally through the creation and production of this truly strange film.
The very first thing I've got to say about the film itself is just how blown away I was by James Franco's performance; his Tommy goes beyond a one note parody of Wiseau's accent; Franco's Tommy is an incredibly interesting portrait of a man who is famously unwilling to share personal information about himself. Yes there are a number of laughs at Tommy's expense, but the character is more than a simple impression, showing a deep loneliness and strong sense of loyalty to the young man who has reached out to him in friendship.
As with other comedic films about filmmakers, Ed Wood (1994), Bowfinger (1999), etc., The Disaster Artist takes a gleeful look at how the industry can run versus how it does, and then exactly how it interacts with a man who completely ignores every piece of advice offered to him and simply makes exactly the film he wants to make.
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