The Room (2003)

On the surface of it, The Room is yet another really bad movie about failed romance. There are plenty of them out there, I'm sure. However, what makes The Room so alluring is its creator and star, Tommy Wiseau. I am obviously not alone in this fascination, as the film has enjoyed a cult status for many years and has recently seem a mocku-docu-drama-whatever insight released with James Franco at the helm. As ridiculous as that film is, it does help shed a light on the backstory of Wiseau himself.

As perplexing and morbidly fascinating that Mr. Wiseau is, I cannot shake the feeling that this guy just got lucky. Where he (and his money) came from is still a head-scratching mystery, but casting him or The Room in any sort of light that paints it as purposefully bad, ironic or even artistic is just plain wrong (I saw the awkward character interactions of The Room compared to the works of David Lynch on IMDb and whilst I drew my own similarities with the surreal or awkward moments, the directors are quite obviously leagues apart). If there was no such thing as meme culture, there would be no career for Tommy Wiseau, and he would most likely just be another dreamer who had a stab at Hollywood and then fell into obscurity.

I mean no disrespect to the man, as The Room is incredibly entertaining despite its deathly pace and repetition. I could just happily go through my entire remaining existence in this world without ever seeing this film again. - 08/10/2019