The Disaster Artist (2017)

Movies about the making of other movies are often really tricky to get right. The most notable examples of this struggle in my mind are Hitchcock, about the making of Psycho, and Saving Mr. Banks, about the making of Mary Poppins. Both are perfectly enjoyable films, but they struggle with a balance between summarizing the film’s existing Wikipedia article and giving us a new take on an already somewhat known story. Neither of these films succeeds at walking that line.

In comes The Disaster Artist, James Franco’s look into the production of one of the best worst movies of all time. It does what no film about a film has done for me before: it separates itself from the film it is about enough to stand on its own as a great film.

That being said, I do not think that it would be a smart move to watch The Disaster Artist without seeing The Room. There’s so many things in this film that are made that much funnier if you’ve already seen The Room – especially James Franco’s astounding performance – that make it worth the hour and a half of complete torture that that film is.

James Franco’s performance as Tommy Wiseau is the true draw to this film. He nails Wiseau’s essence and mannerisms to the point where the physical differences between the two completely disappeared. That has almost never happened to me, and that it happened with Franco (who I don’t particularly care for as an actor) amazes me. The man deserves so many accolades for his performance, and I wouldn’t put an Oscar win past him at this point.

Franco also directs this film, and it is readily apparent how much he enjoys The Room and wants to see this story come to life. The side-by-side segment just before the end credits shows this more readily than any part of the film itself, simply because it shows Franco’s devotion to recreating Wiseau’s film. I also appreciated how the film does take a slightly inspirational tone towards the end; at first, I thought this softened the film quite a bit, but in retrospect it actually makes The Disaster Artist more resonant because it shows the silver lining of Wiseau’s story.

As for things I didn’t care for, the performances outside of Franco aren’t the greatest. I didn’t find them bad, but Dave Franco doesn’t feel like a great fit for Greg Sestero based on what I’ve seen of the latter from The Room. It also feels at times like the writing betrays the film’s darkly comic tone at times, treading into melodramatic territory more than necessary. None of these make the film that much worse, but they definitely put it a step below some of the other Oscar contenders this year.

As someone who has watched and loved hating The Room, The Disaster Artist is a fitting tribute to this masterpiece of awfulness. Most of this is due to Franco’s obvious passion for the story and Wiseau himself, as well as some well-timed humor and inspirational ending. I wish it was a little more tonally consistent, but there are no truly damning flaws here.

My recommendation: See it if you can, but not until after watching The Room.

My grade: 87/100