2003’s “The Room”, written and directed by Tommy Wiseau.
Starring Tommy Wiseau, Greg Sestero, Juliette Danielle,
Philip Haldiman, and
Carolyn Minnott.
What is it about?
The Room is about an older romantic company man (Wiseau)
who’s fiery finance (Juliette Danielle), starts an affair with Wiseau’s athletic
best friend (Greg Sestero), much to Danielle’s mother (Carolyn Minnott)’s
chagrin. Wiseau also has an orphan (Philip Haldiman) that he takes care of, who
is deeply attached to Wiseau and Danielle. Will Wiseau figure out what his
loved ones are hiding from him and be able to survive the betrayal?
Why is it worth seeing?
“The Room” is a cult classic, a tour de farce that is not
recommended for those who don’t care for ironic camp cinema. Left for dead
during a self distributed 2 week 1 theatre run when it was originally released,
a combination of advertising (a Los Angeles billboard that bizarrely featured
Tommy Wiseau’s face), and summer forest fire temperature word of mouth revolution catapulted it
into conversations alongside “Showgirls”, “Glen or Glenda”, “Plan 9 from Outer
Space”, and “Troll 2” as the greatest bad movies of all time.
Part of the appeal of “The Room” is it’s bizarre
anti-auteur’s stance on his film’s reception. After realizing that it’s
greatest appeal was for ironic
theatre goers to get together and throw things at the screen while shouting
along with the movie’s inanity, Wiseau doubled down on how the movie was meant
to be a comedy, and yes, you should see it twice. Unlike, say, “The Rocky
Horror Picture Show” (which has an understanding of it’s fringe appeal), “The
Room” wasn’t originally meant to be a midnight movie classic- but has become
one.
We’ll never know what the room is, in “The Room”. Yes, much
of the movie takes place in a sad sack San Francisco suite featuring a spiral
staircase into a sexy time chamber, but there’s something almost enigmatic about
Wiseau’s choice of title in that there is probably a hack metaphor hiding in
there somewhere. While we’ll never know what room he’s referring to, we do know
that Wiseau is one of the strangest celebrities ever committed to not just
film, but life itself. In interviews, q and a sessions at film screenings, and
promotional junkets promoting “The Disaster Artist”, Wiseau comes across as a
type of Andy Warhol on steroids, an alien visiting our planet earth who has
studied us through filters of filters.
Through his hazy obscura Wiseau developed a perspective here
that he communicates (poorly) through his writing (the nonsensical dialogue of
which he can’t remember as the principal star), directing (scenes drag on with
no rhythm, actors wander in and out of scenes at times, and continuity is discarded
for a more “organic” approach), and acting (his bizarre accent is only the tip
of a meat iceberg that struggles to perform through scenes that don’t make
sense). Whatever his intentions, it’s clear that while Wiseau does not understand
human behaviour, he has been hurt badly by the humans that he slavishly mimics.
There is a deep equal opportunity rage bubbling beneath
Wiseau’s oddly aged face. Crouched underneath his histrionics, lies a
child-like hurt at how girlfriends and best friends will hurt you, no matter
how much you try to be a good person (and how much nagging mother-in-laws give good
advice). That’s the real story behind “The Room”, and Wiseau has wisely hidden
behind both his sunglasses and his “I meant to do that” stance instead of
bringing to light how badly the purposely vague immigrant with possible money
laundering financing is internally damaged.
Wiseau has intoned that he not only meant for “The Room” to
be a comedy, but also a great sexy and dramatic film, but he seems to be the
only one who thinks so. His co-star, Greg Sestero, who wrote about his
experiences meeting Wiseau at their acting class and as a co-worker in “The
Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made”, detailed
Wiseau’s bizarre choices (mounting 2 cameras, 1 standard and 1 HD, on each
other- leading to focus issues, firing and re-hiring the entire cast, using
unnecessary green screens, and claiming he spent $6 Million on the grubby
production).
It’s tough to love “The Room”. While it’s ineptitude is
spectacular and laugh out loud inducing, and the legends about it’s creation
fascinating- it’s rage filled emotional lack of safety makes me pine for some breathing
room.
Rating:
3.5/5
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