The Disaster Artist

The Disaster Artist is a perfect example of a movie that gets a lot of praise and people were calling it the best movie of 2017. I think the theater that I lived by played this movie for a very short time and I never got the time to go and see it, but it was on my list of movies from 2017 that I really wanted to see. But I think the praise and hype that other people created around this movie, created an expectation that I was going to be absolutely blown away by this movie.

And don't get me wrong, it's well done. I can't say it's the best movie of 2017 because the truth is I didn't see a lot of movies in 2017 so I'm still figuring that out. But I think the impressions I got from other people saying this movie was beyond amazing put my expectations very, VERY high for it and usually when that happens, it rarely meets those expectations.

The Disaster Artist chronicles the true story of the making of what is considered the worst movie of all time, The Room and the weird circumstances that it was made, mainly following the two leads, Tommy Wiseau (played by James Franco) and Mark Sestero (played by Dave Franco).

If you haven't seen The Room, you don't need to watch it for this movie but it is kind of helpful and you get some of the context because I have watched The Room, and it is WEIRD.

It is that terrible, and it is that strange, and Tommy Wiseau continues to just be a weird figure to this day. I mean he recently(ish) did an audition tape for "The Joker". Now this audition tape mainly seemed like a publicity thing for The Disaster Artist and a bit of a joke, but it also seems oddly serious and that's the weird thing about The Room in general.

The story mainly follows Mark Sestero as he strives to become an actor, but he doesn't have a lot of confidence. Then he meets Tommy who has all the confidence in the world. Sure he has a weird accent and people aren't wild about his choices, but he goes all out and just tries to act his heart out.

The two become fast friends and move out to Hollywood, despite Mark being 19 at the time and no one really knowing where Tommy is actually from, how old he is, and also how he has what seems like a bottomless well of money or where it comes from. I'll get back to those questions in a little bit because they are important to the movie.

This movie is based off a book written by Mark Sestero and it does tell a little bit more about him than Tommy. While he wasn't very successful, Mark assimilated better to life in Los Angeles than Tommy did. He got an agent, he got a girlfriend (played by Allison Brie), and he started really trying to make it. While Mark didn't have much luck himself, Tommy had even worse luck.

Eventually the two get so frustrated that they think up the idea to make their own movie. Tommy writes, directs, produces, and stars in the now infamous The Room, a strange story about a man named Tommy who's girlfriend cheats on him with his best friend and... well the rest is really confusing, again, if you have some extra alcohol and some free time, I highly recommend watching The Room because it is a weird ride.

And that's the basic premise of the film. Tommy and Mark make this movie, they hire a whole crew and cast for this film that are played by a lot of really funny and talented actors like Seth Rogen, Paul Scheer, Zac Efron, Josh Hutcherson, Nathan Fielder, and so on.

While the cast of this movie is really star studded and talented, the real meat and potatoes of the movie comes in the relationship between Tommy and Mark. I really like the Francos working together and they play off each other pretty well. But I also like the fact that this seemed to be a personal project for James Franco and he included everyone he seems to love in it. Allison Brie is married to Dave Franco. Seth Rogen and James Franco have seemed to be friends for years. While it seems like a case of just casting your friends and having some fun, that's also been the style of Seth Rogen and Franco's work in the past. They hire their friends and just get super passionate about their work.

And furthermore, the story does have a really good message on acting as a profession. A lot of the actors involved with this project were not very well known actors and they really haven't been in anything since, but they focus a lot of the heart and soul of the movie on these people just going out there and working for what their passionate about. At the end of the day, that's what Tommy Wiseau wanted to do. He wanted to be the leading man and act in movies because that's what he was passionate about. However, this moral does kind of delve into the problem I think I had with this movie and why I may have had higher expectations for it than I wanted to and it all has to do with Tommy Wiseau as a person.

A lot of the praise I heard about this movie was that while it is sometimes a comedy, it also brings a lot of heart to a strange guy like Tommy Wiseau. There was a bit of a Wiseau fever after this film and even the movie itself kind of gives Wiseau a lot more credit than I think he really deserves.

The movie starts with successful actors talking about how "revolutionary" the movie is and no matter the quality of it, the fact of the matter is, Tommy put himself out there and followed his dream no matter what some jerk producer in a restaurant played by Judd Apatow says. The movie delves into the heart of a guy who is pretty strange, but at the end of the day is a good guy who just wants to follow his dream...

Except here's the problem with that.

The movie itself doesn't exactly portray Tommy as a really good guy. Sure he's got a dream but there are a lot of moments where he's an asshole in this movie for really no reason. Part of the intrigue of the movie and the book was just describing how much of a shit show it was on that set and how strange it was working under this guy.

There are parts in the movie where Paul Scheer and Seth Rogen get pissed at the way Tommy is doing things and while they say some mean things about Tommy, they're also not wrong that he's an asshole sometimes.

And they make a big deal of asking the question of where Tommy is actually from, how old he is, and how he gets all his money, and I'm sorry if I'm spoiling something, but the movie never answers those questions. There are still a lot of questions about Tommy Wiseau and maybe at the end of the day none of that matters, but people aren't wrong to question that kind of stuff, especially if they're being mistreated by a strange dude like Tommy.

And the other thing that was kind of weird about this movie and the aftermath of it was that suddenly there was a small window of time where people were like, WE NEED TO CAST TOMMY WISEAU IN THINGS, and WE NEED TO GIVE HIM MORE MONEY AND LET HIM MAKE MOVIES AGAIN! Now we have yet to see if Wiseau has really profited off this movie but I have no doubt he has and will continue to in one way or another. But the problem I have with that is that the truth is, he's not talented.

Maybe I'm the jerk that this movie is warning against but no matter how much heart this movie can inject into a character like this (which I'm skeptical about in itself), the truth is he is still an objectively bad actor. And I would be more sympathetic to him if he didn't have a bunch of money like the movie says he does or if he was honest about himself, but they're not. And you may say at the end of the day that's not important, but it kind of is because when people praise him about following his dreams no matter what people said about him, I can say for a fact we wouldn't be talking about him if he didn't have a bank account upwards of 6 million dollars to make a passion project. I have a little bit of a hard time connecting to a character like that when real actors with actual talent don't get anywhere near the notoriety he has because they're broke.

I hope that makes sense and I don't want to attack the guy personally beyond the parts where he's portrayed as a jerk in the movie, I just think that a lot of people set the expectation that I was going to fall in love with this character and I didn't. I liked Franco's acting the same way I thought everyone did a great job in the film.

Don't get me wrong, at the end of the day, this is a really well made movie, the performances are good and it does say some good things about actors and their profession. But if I'm being honest, I think this movie was overhyped just a little bit. I intend to eventually do a re-watch and maybe without the hype in my mind a second time around I'll think it's a lot better. But for now, I can really say it was a well made, pretty good movie. Not the best of 2017, but good. Maybe a little too gratuitous to a strange guy who really only became famous because he had an extra 6 million dollars laying around to make a movie, but overall a really creative film with some good performances.

But those are my thoughts on The Disaster Artist. What did you think? Have you seen The Room? Is the movie better after watching that? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks, I'll see you next time.