The Disaster Artist Review
R for language throughout and some sexuality/nudity
A24, Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, Good Universe, Point Grey Pictures, Ramona Films
Dir: James Franco | Writers: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber
Cast: James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Alison Brie, Ari Graynor, Josh Hutcherson, Jacki Weaver, Zac Efron, Hannibal Buress, Andrew Satino, Nathan Fielder, Sharon Stone, Paul Scheer, Melanie Griffith, Megan Mullally, Jason Mantzoukas,
INTRO: Would you believe me if I tell you that out of every movie around December, this was the one I was anticipating the most? Fuck a “Star Wars.” “The Disaster Artist” is where it's at. A movie starring James Franco and his little bro Dave as they portray the true story of Tommy Wiseau and how he made “The Room,” and its also directed by James Franco?! SIGN ME UP!
When Greg Sestero, an aspiring film actor, meets the weird and mysterious Tommy Wiseau in an acting class, they form a unique friendship and travel to Hollywood to make their dreams come true.
THE GOHD
A JAMES OF ALL TRADES
The last time I saw Franco in a movie where he was prominent was “Why Him?” in which he annoyed me to no end. In this, Franco brings his skill back around for he is phenomenal as Wiseau. Its as if James followed Tommy around for a week for research study and inherited both his voice and his mannerisms. I was never blown away by watching Franco act on screen since “127 Hours.” One of the best things about being an actor is getting lost in the role, and for nearly every frame, I didn’t see James Franco or James Franco impersonating Tommy Wiseau. All that I saw was Tommy Wiseau. Granted, I would love to see how Tom Hiddleston would portray Wiseau since we all saw this picture:
But for the film presented in front of us, Franco gives a hypnotic performance to where he doesn’t feel like a caricature of himself or. He is a different character who is far from anything the actor/director ever embarked on, and he does a damn near perfect job. He maintains the mysteriousness Wiseau is known for. You can never tell what he is going to say or do he has as unsociable as he’s known to be; Everything we know about the real Wiseau, Franco embodies which leads me to admit that I honestly think this is the best performance of Franco’s career.
He does a fine job both directing (surprisingly for the first time) and giving this performance of the infamous Tommy Wiseau without either going over the top. Besides acting and doing the Wiseau voice onscreen, he even pulls a Jared Leto and acts like the character off-screen also while directing. It's somewhat ironic that Franco directed a movie about Wiseau who made a self-indulgent movie while his career of directing has been noted as self-indulgent with terrible flicks as well so it only makes sense.
I believe Franco can make more GOOD movies where he's at the helm as long as the screenplays he gets are great and this is an example of a great script. This isn’t one of those comedies that have all these comedic actors ad-libbing but have a script that tells a story with genuine humor. Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (500 Days of Summer, The Fault in Our Stars) provide an excellent adapted screenplay that hits every element of Sestero’s tell-all book. While that, the writing duo incorporates jokes that you see on YouTube personalities such as Nostalgia Critic. During a sequence where the crew is filming the sex scene, there is a moment where Sandy (played by Rogen) makes a joke about Wiseau having sex with Juliette Danielle’s belly button. NOSTALGIA CRITIC MADE THAT JOKE IN 2010 IN HIS ROOM REVIEW. It may be the consensual joke whenever one watches the flick and lands on that part but as far as I’m concerned I would like to imagine that joke was inspired by Doug Walker’s alter ego.
NOT SO NEPOTISTIC
Throughout the start of his career, some have been yearning to actor Dave Franco star in a film with his brother James whether if James is on or most preferably behind. Somehow for a long time, he hasn’t mainly because Dave once said in an interview, "I didn't want people to think I was riding his [James] coattails.” Some may say that it would be an example of nepotism. There has been good nepotism (Sofia Coppola) and bad nepotism (Jaden Smith). This has to be the best example of what good Hollywood nepotism should be where never for a minute that I believe that these real-life brothers look like brothers because of their performances. It slightly feels like Franco was waiting for this moment to star alongside Franco because the material was good enough to have people forget that Franco and Franco are related.
Not only does James does a great job, but his performance is elevated by Dave who gives a stellar performance as Greg. At the core of the film, it's about the friendship between Tommy and Greg. Whenever Tommy is acting weird, and everyone doubts him, Greg is the one who maintains his faith ad stick with him no matter what. The movie is told from his point of view and where at first he seems like an ecstatic puppy who is so naively ready to be Tommy’s friend for he admires his courage of not caring about other people’s perceptions. As the film goes on, he begins to think Okay. This motherfucker may be crazy. He handles Tommy's personality with caution when others are unable to.
THIS IS HOW YOU HAVE FRIENDS IN YOUR MOVIE
If there was a string theory board with the cast of “The Disaster Artist,” you’ll have a perfect constellation of actors who all have worked together on projects in the past. With “The Disaster Artist,” you see a numerous amount of comedians that have either worked with James Franco before or you know as comedians under the Seth Rogen belt. The last time an all-star cast of comedians starred in a film of epic proportions was “Grown Ups 2,” which nobody wants to remember that so, I’ll use the previous film before that which was “This is the End.” Like “This is the End,” the all-star ensemble is present to not exactly get easy paychecks from the viewers in the similar vein Adam Sandler did but to provide a well-balanced story about friendship and following your dreams. For God’s sake, Bryan Cranston who played opposite of James in “Why Him?” appears in this but as a plot device to introduce conflict between Greg and Tommy.
Even though the cast is associated with the various projects they’ve worked on, the casting is so spot on. The actors that they got to portray these real-life cast members of “The Room” look so alike. Ari Graynor looks like Juliette Danielle; Josh Hutchinson looks like Philip Haldiman. It is insane how great this ensemble is. Don’t believe me? Stay before the credits to see a “The Room” reenactment alongside the original film. By the end of it, it makes you want an actual shot for shot remake of "The Room" with this cast.
A lot of elements that I love about the movie are present in a similar film called “Brigsby Bear” which was released earlier this year. Though “Brigsby” had a somberness to its story and featured a character, you sympathized for, “Disaster” similarly delivers a powerful underdog story about an outcast making his dream a reality while providing a love letter to the art of filmmaking. Granted, Wiseau is never likable and whose mentality is always a mystery (similar to the man himself) you kind of still root for him to make this movie due to other people giving him shit.
THE BAHD
YOU GOT A LONG WAY TO GO FRANCO
Though James Franco has directed a straight forward biopic, there is no real artistic value to it. Not that I am expecting some visual masterpiece that makes me look at him differently, but think back to when Adam McKay directed “The Big Short” in 2015. For a director who is known for directing Will Ferrell comedies, McKay was able to make something that was out of his realm visually cinematic with mesmerizing shots and inventive devices he used for the story. When directing duo Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg direct movies, they make sure to express their story with flair and style even with their television productions.
The filmmaking on this on the other hand just looks so flat. There’s not much play with the depth of field, and you can tell that was sort of the intention especially since this is Franco’s first good directorial film. The film is presented as a standard biopic production wise. It has the cinematic value of a low budget comedy other than a studio production. You may say, “DUH! It's an A24 movie, its supposed to look like a low budget movie.” Well, at the same time, this is a studio production as well because of New Line Cinema’s credit on the movie. I mean “In Dubious Battle,” had Franco at helm with a project that looked theatrical. It just has me a bit confused.
TAKE TWO
It may take you two times to go see “The Disaster Artist” for you to take in all of the stories because you will get easily distracted by who appears in the movie. Because of the cast being so large, the majority of the time you’ll forget about the story and go, “HEY I KNOW YOU,” when someone you recognize appears. It just becomes distracting how much the A-list cast harbors the story only by their appearance. As I said, they are there to portray these real people who took part of this ‘mess’-terpiece of a movie. But at some point, this goes from being a regular movie into a Muppet movie because of all the celebrity pop-ups which at some cases feel like cameos opposed to them having a definite role in the story.
LAH STAEMEN
“The Disaster Artist” has James Franco at his prime. With solid direction and great performances from himself and the rest of his cast, this cinematic love letter to the best-worst movie ever made is one of the best of the year.
Rating: 4/5 | 89%
Super Scene: “I did not hit her, it's not true! It's bullshit! I did not hit her! I did not!”/ POST CREDIT WISEAU OFF
