Thoughts on "The Room"

This week I'm covering the legendary bad movie "The Room" and thought I would ask for some general thoughts about the film, its backstory, the actors and crew, or anything else about the film or the Tommy Wiseau "universe." Personally, its one of my favorites and ranks high of my list for rewatch-ability and overall enjoyment. What do you think?

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It's one of those so bad that it's good movies, but I don't think it's the worst movie ever, as it's known for, as there are so many worse ones out there probably.

There are some things the movie did right though, and I don't think they were completely incompetent. For example, I don't think they break the 180 degree rule at anytime that I noticed anyway, and the lighting, cinematography, and continuity seems consistent (shrug).

Those things the movie did right add to the comical charm of it all. And that charm is all about it being bad. Wiseau had competent people working for him and had a decent budget but a romance drama turned into a dead pan comedy without intention.

Sure there’s plenty worse movies, for example shot with no budget but they don’t have the special wiseau element.

For me the standout is Wiseau's character himself. It's like he's from an alternate dimension. He, as this eccentric figure in his late 30s or early 40s, is so out there amongst these dull, average, pretty 20-somethings, and yet they never bat an eyelash or act like he's any different or any older than them. You could say that's just social decorum, but no, clearly that's not it.

So the way the general audience perceives the events in the film (middle-aged guy who's a weirdo is rejected by his college-age girlfriend for the young stud) certainly doesn't seem to be what Wiseau was thinking when he was creating it.

The movie is trash. Entertainment value, very high.

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I think an interesting take on this is to look at the film through the lens of the immigrant experience. Like, Tommy is an alien and wants so badly to fit into this American pop culture society that hes seen in movies. Johnny has fit in, in his story, but he remains an outsider in American eyes.

I think that's another part of what elevates it even above a lot of the usual bad-movie pantheon - the fact that it plays like outsider art more than anything else.

I love it. Amazing film.

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It's one of my favourite movies purely by how entertaining it is.

The Disaster Artist was brilliant, but I felt I already knew as much of The Room as I wanted without actually seeing it. I watched about 10 mins & bailed out.

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I watched The Disaster Artist before watching The Room, which is why maybe I enjoyed it more, as I did not know much of the true story.

I finally watched it for the first time a few months ago and I still have yet to see The Disaster Artist. I can see why it was so bad, but so bad in a good way that I couldn't take my eyes off. I was laughing almost the entire time, knowing what had happened on the set.

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This is what I was wondering too while watching the movie, is why didn't Wiseau just write the characters to match his age, and hire actors of that age instead?

Because that's part of the fantasy, it seems. There are plenty of moments in the Disaster Artist book that point to him being self-conscious about his age and appearance e.g. claiming to be in his 20s even though nobody believed him or obsessively exercising so it makes sense that the film he wrote and directed would play into his idealised self rather than his reality.