Director: James Franco
Year Released: 2017
Rating: 2.0
Actors Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) and Tommy Wiseau (director James) take to Los Angeles in order to "make it" in the biz, but fail (wow, Apatow cuts deep) so they decide to make their own movie, with them as the leads ... and that would become 2003's The Room, which became a cult classic for being so-bad-some-people-think-it's-great. I was asked by some friends to see that movie, and I did, and I didn't even bother posting a review of it - I may have laughed once or twice at the ineptitude and line readings (Wiseau, of Polish descent, has a unique accent and idiosyncratic delivery), but too often I simply flinched at the ineptitude and waited impatiently for it to be over. That leads me to a series of questions I have about Mr. Franco's intent in making this: is he exploiting Wiseau and Sestero's lack-of-artistry for his own gain? Is he trying to show that bad films can sometimes be more fulfilling to an audience than "critically-praised" ones? Does he see himself as a younger Wiseau, i.e. a troll? Or is he just in Full Peacock Mode and demonstrating his own skill at imitation? (The answer to all these is probably "Yes.") Some of the guffaws are well-earned and a few zingers work ("Do it like Shakespeare, but sexy"), but the question of whether it was made in bad faith or not is worrisome.
