Writer: Scott Neustadter, Michael H Weber (Screenplay) Greg Sestero, Tom Bissell (Book)
Starring: James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Alison Brie, Lizzy Caplan, Zac Efron, Ari Graynor
Plot: When Greg Sestero, an aspiring film actor, meets the weird and mysterious Tommy Wiseau in an acting class, they form a unique friendship and travel to Hollywood to make their dreams come true.
Runtime: 1 Hour 43 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Fantastically Hilarious
Story: The Disaster Artist starts as we meet young aspiring actor Greg (Dave Franco) who meets the mysterious fellow actor Tommy Wiseau (James Franco) in San Francisco, learning Tommy has money to support him Greg agrees to head to LA with him to try and make an impact in the acting world.
Finding themselves struggling to find a job they decide to make their own movie, ‘The Room’. They get their own crew with script advisor Sandy (Rogen) trying to keep things under control during the shot. As Greg starts his own relationship with Amber (Brie) he starts to become distant from Tommy who starts to become a dictator on set putting the production into turmoil as we learn how the most notoriously bad movie The Room is made.
Thoughts on The Disaster Artist
Characters – Greg is an aspiring actor who at a young age heads to Hollywood with a stranger Tommy Wiseau as he looks to make an impact in the industry. He is filled with the enthusiasm any young actor must make it in the business. Tommy Wiseau is the mysterious man that offers Greg a chance to move to Hollywood, he has an accent no one seems to be able to figure out, has money to support this dream, he ends up writing, directing and starring in the movie, that has bigger meaning to him that anyone could imagine. Sandy helps with the script and shoot, knowing just how strange the film seems and working with Tommy is strange experience for him. We do get to meet the rest of the people who are involved in movie and the lives of Greg and Tommy during this time.
Performances – James Franco is fantastic in this role, this is easily the best of his career to date and the chemistry he shows with his real-life brother Dave comes through on screen too. Dave Franco continues to improve, movie to movie and steps up to plate here. Seth Rogen is great in this role with his restrained role that never goes into full Rogen mode. The rest of the cast are great and we do get big names appearing in different moments of the film.
Story – The story follows the making of the film branded the worst ever ‘The Room’ and how the unlikely friendship help build this movie to become the cult sensation people still talk about today. It does show chasing dreams can get what you want even if it isn’t the best quality, it shows that if you want to be able to say you did something, then this shows you how to achieve this.
Biopic/Comedy/History – The biopic side of the film only covers the meeting of the two till the premier, which is good, but as the film implies Tommy is a man of mystery we would like to learn more about. The comedy hits every time in this film, we have laugh out loud moments that are genuine reaction to what is being shot and this history side of the film shows how one of the most famously worst movies was made.
Settings – The settings fit the film perfectly showing us just where the film would have taken place and how weird set choice were too.
Scene of the Movie – The Screening.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – That I haven’t seen ‘The Room’, you don’t need to see it but now I want to.
Final Thoughts – This could easily be one of the funniest films I have ever seen, while I have never seen The Room this movie opened my eyes to follow dreams however farfetched they seem and now I want to see it. This is one of the best movies of 2017 without a doubt.
Overall: Funniest film of the year.
Rating