The Disaster Artist is a film adaptation of a book written by Greg Sestero, who plays Mark in The Room, and Tom Bissell, a journalist who wrote about the cult classic for Harper’s Magazine. It is about Greg’s relationship with Tommy Wiseau, the director, producer, writer and actor of The Room. In the hands of James Franco, who directs and acts as Wiseau, it becomes an uplifting, inspirational, more realistic Brigsby Bear or Frank about a young Greg befriending Wiseau and their bumpy journey to dubious fame and a long-lasting friendship.
The takeaway lesson of The Disaster Artist is about doing anything to keep your dreams alive, not waiting until conditions are perfect and not letting others tell you that you’re not good enough even when they are right. Movies are about being with your friends, and this film models that vibe because it is helmed by Franco, features Seth Rogan with baby brother Dave Franco along for the ride and taking the driver’s seat as the main character, Greg. I’m not someone who is above Rogan and Franco’s movies. This Is the End is one of my favorite apocalyptic comedies ever. This film ranks second because it is not that kind of funny and loses points because you have to see The Room to fully appreciate it. It is probably their most serious work as it is part period piece, a biopic and a behind the scenes exclusive on the making of one of the worst movies ever made.
The Disaster Artist features amazing, hilarious, scene stealing cameos by Megan Mullaly, Sharon Stone and Judd Apatow. Franco’s Wiseau is an underdog because of his lack of talent and awkwardness. I enjoyed the film’s sentiment and appreciated its execution, but with my arms folded and plenty of side eye. I am simultaneously happy for them, but annoyed. The film does not minimize Wiseau’s delusional or megalomaniacal, controlling behavior, but it does ultimately excuse it.
Wiseau mistakenly thinks that he can buy people and makes ultimatums when he feels insecure in his relationships. He will exploit his personal knowledge of the other person’s weaknesses. Even when it will not cause him any inconvenience, he makes a friend sacrifice a career opportunity or a relationship to prove that someone is really his friend when being a friend is about wanting the other person to get the best even if that means that you get to spend less time with your friend or have to let that person go. We’re supposed to have empathy for Wiseau and applaud Greg for staying in a toxic relationship that is initially generous, but gradually becomes selfish, abusive and exploitive. I’m not even mentioning all of Wiseau’s lies because Greg implicitly signs an invisible waiver to ignore the blatantly untrue aspects of Wiseau’s bio. The lesson of the movie inadvertently becomes that everyone deserves to feel special even if they’re not and stay indefatigably focused on a dream by ignoring a lot of shadiness and forgiving his lack of understanding and flexibility in his treatment of others with no promise that he will change his behavior in the future.
It is possible that Wiseau is in some ways developmentally delayed or disabled because he clearly has difficulty picking up on emotional and social cues, knowing what is appropriate without modeling others, communicating or gauging simple things about people such as their age or articulating his emotions instead of having emotional tantrums. It is also possible that he is someone who was never effectively challenged to behave better towards others because he had sufficient resources to sidestep common courtesy.
The Disaster Artist paints delusional and damaging behavior as inspiring and inspirational. Wiseau is no underdog. He is just another inexplicably wealthy guy who gets showered with success disproportionate to objective factors such as skill, conduct or natural talent. He gets rewarded for bad behavior and a crappy product. Show me people hurling backhanded accolades at a poor person with the same characteristics or even a woman with moderately more talent and skill yet socially awkward and definitely mentally disabled, but can still make her dreams come true, and I’ll back off. For every Wiseau, there are more Christines, not the car in Stephen King’s novel, but Christine Chubbuck, who may not have been the best journalist and definitely suffered from a mental disability, but received no similar understanding, long lasting friendships or even backhanded compliments. I’d be less annoyed at this phenomenon if everyone got to be the star of whatever endeavor he or she put their hand to, but life is not fair, and even the best work goes unnoticed and forgotten. Just ask Hedy Lamarr who produced her own films, which tanked but had to be better quality than The Room because anyone would be hard pressed to name a movie that is worse than Wiseau’s debut feature film. Lamarr invented frequency jumping and literally changed all our lives yet she gets a PBS documentary that most people will never know existed.
I know that life is not fair, but I’m glad that I never paid the movie ticket price to be reassured that I can find a friend for life, make the worst movie ever and still get positive affirmation if I inexplicably have millions of dollars to spend. The Disaster Artist may be a solid, entertaining movie, but it is also a bittersweet reminder that not everyone can afford to make their dreams come true or if you don’t fit the correct socioeconomic categories, your awkwardness will not be ignored, excused or praised, but will relegate you to ridicule, loneliness and oblivion. Maybe you can just call me the older brother in the prodigal son parable, but at least in that parable, everyone was invited to the party. I just want everyone to experience what Wiseau has, and at this point, that is impossible. I’d feel happier about the Duplass brothers’ success, who have the same ambitions and fewer resources, but make an enjoyable product.