Review: The Room (2003)

★☆☆☆☆

Director: Tommy Wiseau

Starring: Tommy Wiseau, Juliette Danielle, Greg Sestero, Philip Haldiman

❝ I'M GOING TO DO WHAT I WANT TO DO, AND THAT'S IT. WHAT DO YOU THINK I SHOULD DO? ❞

SPOILER ALERT

Synopsis: Johnny (Tommy Wiseau) is in a loving relationship with his girlfriend (or future wife), Lisa (Juliette Danielle). Unbeknownst to him, Lisa begins to have an affair with his best friend, Mark (Greg Sestero). Some strange, irrelevant and unresolved subplots later, Johnny becomes suspicious and sets out to find the truth (even after she's admitted it in a conversation he overhears).

Director: Tommy Wiseau. Writer: Tommy Wiseau. Starring: Tommy Wiseau. This is a classic example of what NOT to do when making your first feature length film, with no prior (or successful) background in film. In fact, everything in this film might as well be an example. One dimensional characters, continuity errors galore, irrelevant dialogue, subplots that go nowhere, serious issues of cancer and domestic/emotional/substance abuse dropped...it all makes for one strange experience. It comes across as a misogynistic (in the most basic sense too), shallow, nonsensical mess. I don't think I could explain it any better than Cinema Sins does in this video, so I think I'm going to leave this video here for your viewing pleasure. 

My first experience with this film was simply a youtube clip of one of the scenes (the infamous "Oh hai Mark!") and I went through almost every clip of it I could find because I was in utter disbelief this was a real film. I was laughing far too much. The film has managed to create a huge cult following who appreciate it's absurdity and even Tommy himself has profited somewhat from this experience. This is what I love most about the whole thing - Wiseau is kind of a genius; he creates one of the worst movies ever, and instead of trying to bury it and erase it from his mind, he still loves it and treats it as a triumph/dream come true. He stands by his art. Hell, screenings of this film still happen, even years after its release and are often major events for the fans, who dress up, quote along, throw spoons at the screen, toss footballs around - everything. What can't be denied about this movie is the fact that it does have a lot of heart, and you can see how eager Wiseau was to create it. Bless.