The Disaster Artist - Review
This review of The Disaster Artist is spoiler-free.
The Room is known by many to be one of the best worst movies of all time. Being a bit of a movie fanatical myself, I for some reason haven't gotten around to watching that movie. The Disaster Artist takes the behind the scenes book written by Greg Sestero, Tommy Wiseau's co-star in The Room, and recreates it on screen. Going into this film, I wasn't necessarily certain on what to expect from a film like it. Film has rarely seen a movie that attempts to take a biographical look at the creation a film, while avoiding the usage of scenes from the actual behind the scenes. What results though, is one of the better biographical films that I have ever seen, and a film that captivates audiences with it's depictions of characters.
For The Disaster Artist to be successful, two portrayals had to work perfectly: Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) and Tommy Wiseau (James Franco). I can definitively say that both of these portrayals are excellent. James' portrayal of Wiseau is absolutely captivating. Taking a man with such a quiet and well hidden history, and a strange style of living and recreating him on screen is not an easy task. From the very beginning, I never felt as though I was looking at Franco, but at Tommy on screen once again making HIS movie. I have heard that James actually method acted for the entirety of the film's production and spent a lot of time with Tommy, and for this I actually believe this portrayal considers some form of award consideration because it truly is that well done.
On the other side of this film is Dave Franco portraying Greg Sestero who I actually believe to be the main character of the film. While Tommy is without a doubt the more important character in the film, this is truly Greg's story. Coming from his tell-all book I was not surprised and I really felt for Greg throughout the entirety of the film. In his mind Tommy represents everything Greg wants to be, resulting in them becoming fast friends and leading him down a path that gets him to The Room. I was hoping for the best for Greg even though I know what happened, which is an excellent way to keep interest in the film. Seeing Greg's journey is incredible, and watching Tommy manage to squander some of Greg's aspirations hurts even more.
The story of the films follows Greg's life from just beginning acting and meeting Tommy, all the way until after the premiere of The Room. With all of this time, there's a large portion of the film outside of The Room itself which I believe is for the better of the movie. It allows for the film to breathe and give the characters (outside of Tommy) an identity. Seeing how Greg's life is turned upside by his hopes and dreams is incredible and invests you in his story from the very beginning. With the story focusing on Greg you can see the effect that someone like Tommy can have on a person as impressionable as Greg. This allows the story to bloom seeing their back and forth throughout the film.
The Disaster Artist is a great biographical movie with much more drama than I would have originally anticipated. There is true tension and worry for the characters in the film, and it truly makes you question who is in the right and who is in the wrong throughout the film. For anyone who is a fan of either of the Franco brothers, or films directed by them and Seth Rogen this is worth seeing. Regardless if you are a true fan of them, The Disaster Artist is still one of the best films in this rather quiet genre. Learning about the world surrounding The Room was so great I almost feel the need to go see the movie. Also, P.S., stay after the credits you'll thank me later.
