"The Room": Why The Worst Movie Ever Worth Watching

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The Room, directed by the enigmatic Tommy Wiseau, is objectively a very bad movie that has gained cult status and many fans. The life hacker understands what caused this phenomenon.

What is the movie about?

If you read only the synopsis, it may seem that "Room" is a banal drama. Johnny (played by director Tommy Wiseau) lives a normal life, works in a bank and is going to marry his girlfriend Lisa (Juliet Daniel), but it turns out that Lisa loves not Johnny, but his best friend Mark (Greg Sestero).

There are a couple of unrelated storylines in the film: with Lisa's mother, strange friends and a rugby ball, which is constantly in the hands of the characters when they have to deal with difficult life situations.

What's bad about him?

Everything! Seriously, it can take a very long time to describe the creepy camera work, locations and music. But first of all, the actors' play and the surrealism of what is happening are striking.

For example, Johnny tells Mark that he will not talk about his work at the bank ("This is confidential!"), And casually adds: "By the way, how are you with your sex life?" Or Lisa's mother informs her daughter about her breast cancer and imminent death, to which Lisa answers without trembling in her voice, "Everything will be fine!" and turns the conversation to another topic.

The feeling that Tommy Wiseau lives in some other world. The heroes, even in one dialogue, do not retain the motivation and meaning of what was said. And also this wild pretense. The main character laughs terribly, portrays a chicken and at the end of the film destroys furniture in demonstrative anger, but … Sorry, Tommy, it didn't work out.

Is this all a complaint about the film?

Of course not. Some scenes are repeated: for example, the argument between Lisa and her mother about Johnny ("I don't love him" - "He provides you!"). And also eroticism. Even then, Viseau managed to do everything super stupid.

If you look closely at these scenes, it becomes clear that it is simply impossible to have sex in this position. And also sugary-pop music and awkward moans. And we are not talking about the fact that almost all of these scenes are sudden and accompanied by an uncertain "Lisa, what are you doing?" (Lisa has already done this with you, wake up, Mark!).

And why then "Room" became popular?

Indeed: on IMDb the film has a sad mark - 3, 6. But at the same time, Tommy Wiseau's movie can be called cult. In most tops in the spirit of "Worst Movies in Cinema History," he is in the lead.

But it should be noted that "Room" became popular much later than its release - in the era of viral YouTube videos. The first screenings in Los Angeles failed, the audience could not stand even half of the film. In total, "Room" has collected in theaters a little less than two thousand dollars.

The film received its first fans in 2010. The Room was reviewed by Doug Walker, better known as Nostalgia Critic, who advised all his fans to “watch this”. Weissau sued Walker, even got the video removed, but the review was still restored.

After all the hype, Wiseau's film began to grow into a real fanbase. People themselves began to organize shows and arrange thematic evenings, where they talked with phrases from the "Room".

Maybe the film was made so badly on purpose?

Until the last frames of the "Room" there is a feeling that this is such a special kind of trolling, but hardly. Those who worked on the set with Tommy assure that Wiseau is an obsessive who really believed that he was filming a serious drama.

Wiseau sincerely says he was inspired by Hitchcock and Marlon Brando. And first of all - James Dean, the actor who played the main role in the cult film of the youth of the 50s "Rebel Without a Cause", and at the age of 24 he died in an accident. Weiso makes an absurd reference to this film, addressing his girlfriend in an unnatural tone: "Lisa, you are tearing me apart!"

In addition, the director wrote the play two years before filming, and then turned it into a 500-page novel. Waso failed to release a large circulation, and he decided to try his hand at cinema, creating a film "based on real events." According to the director, the prototype of Lisa is a woman whom he gave a diamond ring for one and a half thousand dollars, but she left it anyway.

Who is Tommy Wiseau?

A very mysterious person. Greg Sestero, film producer and actor who plays Mark, writes in his book The Woe Creator (dedicated to Weiso and the creation of The Room) that Tommy was born in the 1950s, presumably in the Polish city of Poznan. And Vayso himself says in an interview that he considers himself an American, once lived in France for a long time, and was born in 1968.

From the same book by Sestero and the interviews that Wiseau gave, you can learn a simple thing: Tommy does not want to remember the past. What Wiseau did not tell his producer friend: how he killed a man, was arrested in France for drug possession, worked in a hospital in San Francisco … And a dozen other stories that can be divided into two categories: pulp fiction and laborer tales. Which of this is true is very difficult to say.

And according to the main legend, Vaiso came to the cinema after a car accident. She psychologically broke him and made him look for a way out of emotions in the cinema. And immediately spend six million dollars.

Oh, how did Wiseau have so much money for filming?

This question worried everyone on the set. In the most obvious version, the director, producer, leading actor and screenwriter all rolled into one just laundered money. But Wiseau himself strongly disagrees with the corruption allegations. “I imported jackets from South Korea,” says the master, and it's hard not to believe. After all, there is even an advertisement with his participation!

Most likely, the business that made Wiseau a millionaire was tied to real estate in Los Angeles and San Francisco. But even here it is impossible to say for sure: maybe jackets and jeans were really selling so well?

What was the money spent on?

Wiseau is just a terrible organizer. Not all the actors could withstand the lack of professionalism on the set (the director constantly forgot his lines, he needed a lot of takes), he had to find new performers or even delete the characters from the script (and in total, 400 people worked on the creation of the film).

The director bought unnecessary scenery and equipment, spent money on two sets of cameras at once - in HD format and 35 mm film. Usually such expensive equipment is rented and only one camera format is used. But Waiso was proud that he was "the first director who went on such an original move." As a result, a film was shown, shot only on classic film.

James Franco received a Golden Globe for The Woe Creator. Is this a movie about The Room?

Yes. James Franco directed The Disaster Artist, in which he played Tommy Wiseau and told the story of The Room. And he also proved that a person without any talent and ability can get his “15 minutes of fame” (although Vaiso already has much more of them).

The author of the original got only a small cameo, although Franco was initially against the appearance of Weissau in the frame. But Tommy again played so absurdly that he could not be cut from the final cut.

Alas, we will not see the film on big screens in Russia. "Woe Creator" was released on December 7, 2017 in the United States, but in Russia it will not be shown in cinemas due to the fact that "Room" is an American phenomenon. Have to wait on DVD.

Tommy Wiseau left the cinema after "The Room"?

Yes, there was a lull in his work (not counting unknown short films and cameo roles), but after all the hype, new fans and endless reviews, Viseau is ready to return to business. Tommy is going to stage a comedy musical based on "Room" and together with his friend and partner Greg Sestero has directed a new film "Best Friends", which will be released in May this year.

How to look at the "Room" correctly?

First, it's best to watch it in the original with subtitles. The offscreen voice spoils the whole atmosphere of madness and Weiso's signature intonations. And second, try to get some weird pleasure. Yes, this is a bad movie in every way. But that's what makes it beautiful.