Based on Greg Sestero’s best-selling tell-all about the making of Tommy Wiseau's cult-classic disasterpiece The Room (“The Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made”).
A thoughtful, deeply humorous portrait of a man who wanted to make a movie in spite of the cynicism of others, and did so entirely on his terms - in this case, for far worse results than most.
Wiseau also makes a pretty good avatar for Franco himself: a mercurial, relentless performer whose ambition encompasses a thrilling willingness to crash and burn. And it's that identification that makes the comedy work here: Franco kids because he loves.
The film alternates between embracing the individual viewer and the collective appreciation of bad, bad art, and while we are often laughing uproariously at the audacity of the story unfolding, there are moments of sadness where we fear we shouldn't.
Franco delivers a comedy that's delightfully offbeat. It probably helps if you've actually seen "The Room," but you can safely spare yourself that experience.
[James] Franco has not just made a really sharp, funny movie about movie making. He's also made a layered and intimate portrait of a friendship with his own brother, Dave Franco.
The movie condenses the complicated Wiseau-Sestero relationship into a broad "two friends take on Hollywood" narrative, robbing the story of so many of its eccentricities.
Funny -- sometimes brutally -- and surprisingly touching, it works whether you've seen the source material or not, though there are plentiful shout-outs to die-hard fans.
