Ham & Cheers
Flop mickey-take is comedy gold
THE worst films are the boring ones.
They’re the earnest dramas and stodgy thrillers you can find on higher-numbered channels on late-night TV.
It’s easy to criticise Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 melodrama The Room.
The acting is hammy, the dialogue is ridiculous and the plot is preposterous.
But no-one has ever called it boring. In fact, it’s so joyously dreadful it’s still playing to packed audiences at midnight screenings across the world.
The Disaster Artist is a good film about the cult smash they call “the Citizen Kane of bad movies”.
James Franco directs and stars as Tommy, The Room’s utterly talentless writer, director and star.
If you’ve been to one of those raucous screenings, his is an uncanny impression of the loose-limbed and bizarrely accented oddball.
But you don’t need to be a fan to enjoy his performance. It’s a goofy and often hilarious turn, but a very affectionate one too.
The story is mostly told from the viewpoint of his friend and future co-star Greg Sestero (played by Franco’s brother Dave) who meets Tommy at a San Francisco acting class.
Taking him under his wing, he invites him to move into the Los Angeles apartment he rarely uses (like his age and his nationality, the source of his wealth is a mystery).
While young Greg soon finds an agent (Sharon Stone) and a girlfriend (Alison Brie), Tommy isn’t quite so warmly received.
So he decides to call the shots himself. He doesn’t know one end of a camera from the other but his bottomless bank account will get him the cast, crew and studio space he needs.
Unsurprisingly, the shooting of The Room is a nightmare. Tommy wastes a fortune building sets that look just like actual locations he could use for free.
His plot is full of holes, he forgets his lines and he keeps erupting into bizarre rants.
“At least nobody will ever see it,” says the script man (Seth Rogen) who soon starts plotting to scrub the film from his CV. He doesn’t know the half of it.
The bookies are already offering odds for James Franco to win Best Actor at the Academy Awards for this hilarious and surprisingly touching turn.
A night at the Oscars would be the perfect ending to this bizarre true-life tale.