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OUR RATING
4/5 Stars
WHAT IT'S ABOUT:
A delightful tribute to the joy and madness of making movies, The Disaster Artist follows the outrageous adventures of eccentric filmmaker Tommy Wiseau and his best friend, actor Greg Sestero. These two endearing misfits move to L.A. and try to live the Hollywood dream by making their very own feature film, but end up embarking on a wildly unpredictable and hilariously unforgettable production, leading to one of the most infamous, bizarre, and beloved midnight movies of all time, The Room.
WHAT WE THOUGHT:
What is art?
Who gets to decide what is good and what is bad?
The Room, an independent film written, directed, produced by and starring Tommy Wiseau, has been hailed the “Citizen Kane of bad movies”. It was supposed to be a drama created by Wiseau to kick off his career, but instead has reached cult status for how bad it actually is.
The Disaster Artist, starring James Franco as Wiseau, is a well-made film about this crappy film. Essentially, it’s a good film about a bad film.
But who decides which is which? If The Room is the bad movie, why is it still filling up cinemas even though it was released in 2003 already? If The Disaster Artist is the good movie, will it be able to do the same? Will people still remember it the way they remember The Room?
It’s questions like these that ensured I was completely enveloped by Franco’s latest cinematic project.
It was great to see the 39-year-old actor steer clear of another over-sexualised character and attempt something different. Although he did stick to that “beautiful ugliness” that defines his career choices.
Franco himself completely disappears into character and delivers perhaps one of his greatest performances to date. With The Disaster Artist he manages to take a story about failure and turn it into success.
The film beautifully explores the highs and lows of following your dreams whilst gently sinking its teeth into the intricacies of friendship. It does all this with a strong dose of humour that is often used to mask the pain lingering underneath.
The Disaster Artist, labelled a drama, will make you laugh – just like the drama it was based on made audiences chuckle. It’s meta on a level that will make your head spin – but in a good way.
It’s a wonderful piece of cinematic work and undoubtedly worth watching.
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:
