The Room
Hello everyone and welcome to another review of your favorite french movie guy (I say favorite, but really, no one said that, ever).
Today is a bit different again because to inaugurate this month of October, I wanted to make a series of horror movie reviews. While I'm waiting for as many requests as possible, I decided to drop a little review. Just like that. Out of the goodness of my heart.
So as you can tell by the title, and I should really stop trying to build a suspens there, I'm going to review the infamous movie : The Room.
The Room is a film that came out in 2004, it's written, produced and directed by Tommy Wiseau. The said film also gets as a leading role… you guessed it : Tommy Wiseau.
While it could be a very good thing (Look at Zach Braff's filmography or even Don Jon with and by Joseph Gordon Levitt),
The Room falls into the other category: The disastrous movies.
The film has been bashed by both critics and fans when it came out, some even calling it « The worst movie of all time » and who can blame them.
The movie, originally a theatre play, before being transposed as a 500 pages book, which (obviously) never got published by anyone, only to end up as a movie script.
It costed 6 million dollars Tommy Wiseau apparently made by importing leather jackets. Just so you know how many leather jackets he had to import to make this movie.
Wiseau also had to replace the crew halfway through the filming process and tried to advertise his movie on a billboard for a few years. All of which obviously leading to a tremendous success. A success as in a complete trainwreck.
The film was shot with two different cameras he bought, not rented like he should have. To choose one of of both versions as a final cut.
It was originally meant to be a dark drama. But when the flick got shown to the public for the first time, the audience couldn't stop laughing at it. Resulting in Wiseau rebranding it as a « dark comedy ».
The movie proceeded to get a strong cult following over the years, being shown every first saturday of the month in a few movie theatres.
I decided, for this review, not to take the usual angle critics take when it comes to the movie. I could easily start a rant about how horrible it is in every single aspect. But it would be too easy and it honestly would not be any fun. Especially since I particularly enjoy watching it.
After that little disclaimer, let's get into it.
If you've been on the internet for long enough and took an interest in film criticism, you've most likely heard about The Room. Especially its incredible lines like : « You are tearing me appart, Lisa ! » or « It's not true, it's bullshit, I did not hit her, I did noooooooot… Oh hey Mark ». Not counting the cult « Hai Doggy » scene, or the « Anyway, how's your sex life ». It's a gold mine for bad lines.
But is « The Room » really that bad of a film ? Let me explain.
The Room, quickly summarized, is the story of Johnny (played by Tommy Wiseau).
Johnny is a successful banker who's engaged to Lisa, a woman he dearly loves. They live together and sometimes welcome their neighbour Danny, who comes out of nowhere (seriously, it's never explained). After seeing his promotion refused to him, Johnny is sad. So Lisa decides to cheat on him with Johnny's best friend, Mark.
That's it, that's the plot.
Tommy Wiseau is an incredibly bad actor, writer and director, there's no arguing that. However, something kind of brilliant comes out of this film.
I watched it knowing it was going to be bad but after a while, I started thinking about it and found a malicious pleasure quoting the lines and remembering its overall tone.
But why is that ? You'll ask me, comfortably behind your screen, alone in your room.
You see, some movies can be ahead of their time, it's the case for flicks like Showgirls, They Live or even Robocop, which got understood better years after they first came out. The films were treating subjects that weren't completely mastered at the time. But got later rediscovered, with critics going back to it to change their opinions.
I think The Room is following the same trail, at a very few exceptions. The movie was understood, as in the plot was bad and still is. But the way this film was directed and its tone are things that stood out to me.
The film is shot like a Soap Opera. Everything is there, from convenient plot twists, to relationship drama, dialogues dubbed over the actors, a seemingly perfect main character surrounded by an evil girlfriend and betrayed by his best friend, the blurred image and the very few locations where it's shot.
Does that seem familiar to you ? It should.
All those plot points and artistic directions are taken from Soaps like « The Young and The Restless » for example.
« The Room » gets a whole other dimension when you see it as this kind of parody. Even though it's being taken very seriously. I'm aware the film isn't a parody of any sort. But it becomes unintentionally one when you realise how similar it is to actual Soap Operas, that are supposed to be taken seriously too.
Does that take away how bad « The Room » is ? No it doesn't. The film, judged on a technical and artistic stand point doesn't work at all. However, when it's judged on pure entertainment value, it can get a few good points (It's not as entertaining as another guilty pleasure of mine : « Samurai Cop ». But it's pretty funny too).
On an opposite note, do not expect to laugh or even be entertained all the way throughout the film. There are some uncomfortable moments to watch, like the awfully long sex scenes for example (around 3 minutes each... Which is a very long time in a 1h39 flick, especially when there are at least 3 sex scenes).
Where Tommy Wiseau actually gives us this amazing anatomy class about reproduction, with some terrible r'n'b music in the background, showing that the heterosexual sex act is actually supposed to take place in the woman's navel. Thank you Tommy. I didn’t know.
Or when the same Tommy Wiseau walks around showing his bare ass in front of the camera. That's pretty disturbing too. Especially considering no one asked for it. Nor anyone should. I still have nightmares about it.
So is Tommy Wiseau a misunderstood genius ? Probably not. However, when you take his work for what it is : a movie « so bad it's good », it changes the way you might look at it. That won't make the movie itself any better, but at least you know what you're in for.
I honestly recommend watching The Room, not only because it's really fun to see how a movie, even made terrible on purpose, couldn't reach this level of mediocrity. But also because it's a particular case of everything that can go wrong with a film.
Aside from the editing, which is surprisingly decent, the rest of the film is running in circles, starting plot points as absurd as Lisa's mother saying she has breast cancer, before being completely ignored, going on to how Lisa doesn't love Johnny anymore. It's amazing how the screenplay doesn't even respect its own ideas.
Some plot points are thrown out at the public, like Danny's drug problem, but nothing's ever solved. It's a constant exposition, with Football scenes inbetween. Does it makes sense ? No it doesn't. Oh yes, and sex too. Football, Sex and Bad acting. You're in for a real treat.
In the end, there's a lot that can be said about this film. From its cult lines to their epic delivery, the bad acting, the story making no sense and to top it off, plenty of plot points that are never solved… To summarize it : The Room is a truly brilliant film.
You can't make something that bad on purpose. It's this beautiful accident that made Tommy Wiseau into the disturbed (and disturbing) genius that he is. In the words of The Nostalgia Critic himself :
« The weirdo from the subway made a movie ».
That's Tommy Wiseau. He's as creepy to look as he is to hear and he'll make you cringe without a doubt.
I also forgot the awkward « hahaha » he delivers at the end of every line.
This film is so amazingly bad that it would be a shame not to watch it. Even if you put it back on a shelf without never touching it again out of disgust, at least you'd have seen what a truly bad yet incredible entertaining film is. And believe me, that kind of things is still rare to find.
So what's my conclusion about The Room and why talking about this and not other terrible films ?
Well this particular one can be considered the ultimate leader of bad films. As recent as it is, the film is at least 20 years behind in terms of technique.
Not only that but the awful script mixed with a stunning lack of talent from its creator makes The Room a treasure to watch and rewatch for our own guilty pleasure.
The Room keeps making fun of itself and falls, then gets itself back up before falling again. And it's a fantastic trainwreck to watch.
You don't get two films like that.
Just to top it off, I'm linking you a best of every line Tommy Wiseau had in this film, in case you wanted some context to this review.
Enjoy : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if5eP3crl_4