The Room is still a hit at the Mayfair
‘Greatest bad movie ever made,’ one of the actors says
It is the “greatest bad movie ever made,” according to an actor who starred in the 2003 cult favourite The Room, and for four years the Mayfair Theatre has been devoting a screen to the film every month.
That’s 48 showings — the most recent on Saturday night — or nearly 80 hours of bad accents, worse acting, cringeworthy gratuitous sex scenes and plot holes up the wazoo.
But as the film approaches its tenth anniversary this fall, it’s still “tearing us apart,” writes Mayfair on its website.
“It’s just so outrageous that you can’t help but scratch your head at it or laugh hysterically at it,” said Andrew Lapointe, a manager at the Bank Street cinema.
If you’ve not taken advantage of regular screenings of The Room across North America, it goes something like this: overly trusting Johnny (played by director and writer Tommy Wiseau) feels his manipulative fiancée slipping away from him. Little does he know she is sleeping with his best friend, Mark. Arguments, breakups, makeups — all featuring the presence of an orphan teen of indeterminate age — ensue.
We’ll stop there. A lengthier synopsis would detract from the general sense of unease one experiences when watching this catastrophe for the first time. The magic lies in how this unintended disasterpiece grows on viewers as they notice the more “subtle” elements of the ridiculous over multiple screenings.
Hence the monthly showings at Mayfair and other theatres.
Lapointe said the cinema receives many repeat viewers. And while it’s not always a sellout, The Room always brings in a fair number of patrons.
This party movie, as Lapointe calls it, is popular for being an experience in and of itself. Mayfair patrons bring plastic spoons to throw at the screen whenever a piece of art featuring the utensil appears on screen.
On Saturday, a group of University of Ottawa Faculty of Arts students armed with spoons planned to see the film as a bonding activity leading up to the beginning of school. Among them was Dominique Rea-Parent, who is minoring in film studies. She said the group had memorized a list of popular phrases to yell at key parts of the film.
In that sense, The Room draws those who like socalled participaction films such as Rocky Horror Picture Show, which Mayfair Theatre has been putting on monthly for, well, ever.
The cinema has also bolstered interest with special screenings — Can you say The Room dubstep remix-style? — and selling merchandise. A series of screenings of The Room in 2011 featuring a Q&A with Wiseau and actor Greg Sestero, who plays Mark, created a fervour and sold-out showings.
With the October release of The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made, which recounts the making of the film from the perspective of Sestero, The Room is certain to continue garnering new viewers.
How long, exactly, is the Mayfair willing to put up with the greatest bad movie? “As long as people keep showing up,” says Lapointe.