The Disaster Artist: My Life inside 'The Room', the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made

Vox did a video about The Room recently with the co-author of this book, Tom Bissell, called Why people keep watching the worst movie ever made. He said of it in the interview: "[The Room] is like a movie made by an alien who has never seen a movie but has had movies thoroughly explained to him."That sentence is scarily appropriate, and goes a long way towards explaining why people thought this book was important enough that it not only deserved a book, but then a second movie based on that book. The story behind the movie's inception is almost as bizarre as the movie itself, if not more so.In his memoir, Greg Sestero writes about how he met the creator of The Room, Tommy Wiseau in an acting class, intrigued by his odd behavior and pirate-like appearance. The book chronicles Sestero's own rise from minimum wage worker and discouraged aspiring actor to a B-list actor with a couple of serious roles under his belt. Meanwhile, in the background like the proverbial elephant, lurks The Room, and interwoven with Sestero's own narrative is the narrative of what it was like to be behind the set The Room..And, of course, Wiseau's own narrative arc, as well.Wiseau is one of those characters who is larger-than-life (hence the movie). At times he's hilarious and endearing, at other times, creepy and terrifying. His mood shifts made him difficult to work with and sometimes delayed production, because he had a vision and God help anyone who stood in the way of that. He basically funded this entire movie out of pocket, from a bottomless money hole that led some of the cast members to believe he had illicit ties to the mob. His history remains largely a mystery, although Sestero shares some of the details that he pieced together from the rare anecdote Wiseau thought fit to regale him with, and it seems like he was from an Eastern European country and became wealthy via the American Dream, by starting as a toy-seller in Fisherman's Wharf. Apparently his name is a corruption of Oiseau, which is French for "bird" (because the toys he sold were shaped like bird), although Wiseau himself does not appear to be French.I really enjoyed this book a lot. It's darkly funny and utterly ridiculous. According to Vox, movies like The Room fall into a category of movies called "paracinema," because they're not typical movies and they are not really viewed by a typical audience. The Room, in particular, is a trash film - which I think is probably a nice way of saying "s***." It's funny, because while I was reading this, I was thinking about this documentary I watched a few years ago called Best Worst Movie (2009), which chronicles another trash film: Troll 2 (1990). I watched Troll 2 (although I haven't yet seen the room), and it's about as terrible as you might expect... but there is an art to that awfulness. The timing somehow works out to be so wrong, that rather than being scary, it ends up like a comedy.My Wiki-hopping ended up taking me to a page of movies that are considered to be among the worst ever made. Troll 2 and The Room are both on it, but so are a number of movies that I actually like, such as The Avengers (not the superhero one), Batman & Robin, and Glitter. The Avengers is actually my favorite movie, B&R is my favorite Batman movie, and Glitter was my favorite movie when I was a middle schooler and didn't know any better. Showgirls is on there, as well, but Showgirls is basically the NC-17 version of Glitter, so as you can imagine, I also liked that movie, too. Apparently I have s*** taste in films. (But, again, according to that Vox article, liking trash films is apparently correlated with higher intelligence because they are "subversive." Which, now that I think about it, might go a long way towards explaining my attraction to bodice rippers and pulp.)THE DISASTER ARTIST is the perfect length, in my opinion, and does a nice job balancing both Sestero's and Wiseau's stories. The humor is great, snappy, and witty, peppered with odd-ball humor that fits the subject. Sestero details his tempestuous relationship with Wiseau, and how he slowly but inevitably got dragged in on this crazy project along with the rest of the cast. You also get cool behind-the-scenes trivia, such as why certain lines were said, or why the outfits they're wearing are so weird, or why that one table in the living room is covered with framed pictures of spoons.If you're at all interested in this movie, I highly suggest you read THE DISASTER ARTIST. Watching the movie isn't even necessary to enjoy it (I didn't), although I'm sure it helps. But if you want to feel like you've watched the movie without going through the effort, I urge you to watch CinemaSins's video, Everything Wrong With The Room In 8 Minutes Or Less.What a crazy, crazy story.4 out of 5 stars

I gave the book as a gift so did not read it. However, I've seen movies about Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero. It's definitely an off-the-wall, only in America kind of tale that can be watched several times and something new gotten from it each time. The book should be equally entertaining if that's your thing.

The Disaster Artist is the story of what is perhaps the strangest success story in the history of Hollywood. It's about a man of considerable and suspect means, with no ability to root himself in logic (or in quite a few cases, basic human compassion) and how he spent somewhere in the vicinity of six million dollars to prove to his young aspiring actor friend who had achieved the barest amount of success that he could too. When Hollywood looked at his strange energy, his inability to interact, his off-putting features, his odd wardrobe, his thick accent, he was rejected. So he simply did it himself. The product is a movie that was a failure of colossal proportions upon its initial release, but thanks to the power of the internet and the daring of networks like Adult Swim has managed to claw its way from a status of being a vanity piece from a mysterious immigrant nobody really understands to the status of a revered cult classic. People flock to midnight screenings of The Room to throw spoons and hoot at the screen, and if they are lucky even meet the film's enigmatic creator, Tommy Wiseau. He is at the center of the movie, having written, directed, produced, and starred in it. Everyone wants to get to know the man who is such an anti-genius, a man who managed to do everything wrong with such gusto. I include myself in that group and I can honestly say that I, like everyone else, can only confirm that he does seem crazy, drugged out and unpredictable in real life. But none of us who have attended these screenings really come out knowing anything about him beyond his body language and strange way of speaking. He laughs off questions regarding his past, he answers serious questions about his production process with one liners that mean nothing. You are ultimately left with just as many questions, and the story behind this weird little niche phenomenon begs to be told. As it turns out, the man destined to tell that story is the man who tours with Tommy Wiseau, Greg Sestero. Any fan who has met him can say that he's a friendly, normal guy who seems to understand the absurdity of Wiseau's little empire, even though he devotes himself to it. The impression left is that he is just leeching off of opportunity. But in telling the story of The Disaster Artist, Sestero fills in the gaps regarding the story of The Room. Or should I say his ghostwriter does, but his ghostwriter is very capable and makes the text readable and coherent. He has managed to find the single thread connecting the lunacy of the phenomenon, and unsurprisingly it is in the persona of Tommy Wiseau. We come to learn that Sestero knew Wiseau for years before The Room was ever made, and even rented an apartment Wiseau owned. Wiseau is revealed to be a lonely, desperate person who finally gave up on being turned down. But Wiseau's dream of creating a dramatic masterpiece was from its very inception distorted by his strange, foreign perspective of American life and basic human interaction. And so he hired three crews throughout the production of The Room, two of which leave in fury. He loses actors, starts fights, and flubs his lines (an entire afternoon was spent just trying to get his infamous "you're tearing me apart Lisa!" line right). He throws money at some aspects of production (filming the entire movie on both 35mm film and HD because...he wants to) and is furiously miserly with regard to others (no air conditioning in the 100 degree studio!). Sestero sticks around, having been promised a great deal of money upon completion of the production. It is a fascinating story to read, and we as readers come to realize that the cast and crew hated The Room exactly as much as the general public did. The only person who believed in it was its delusional creator. The author makes the choice of essentially telling two stories, the story of the production of The Room and the story of Sestero's pre-production relationship with Wiseau. This is accomplished through alternating chapters, a strategy which often did not gel with me but will with others. The story's humor loses its edge as it goes on as well, although this is likely due to the fact that the reader simply becomes used to Tommy Wiseau and his insanity. Never the less, I found myself laughing out loud over and over again during the first hundred pages, and reading the second hundred with just a grin. The juciest tidbits in these last sections are behind the scenes stuff, but the novelty began to wear off for the entire crew 3 months into the laborious production process. It is in this latter half that Tommy Wiseau's full life story is finally revealed as well, of which the majority is very sad. Its something I wanted to know, but it broke the flow of the story somewhat thanks to its presentation (shoehorned into the middle of chapters). A lot of these issues are matters of opinion, but it wouldn't be a fair review if I didn't mention them and dock a star from my score for that reason. The story is still far more than I would ever have expected, and is definitely worth the time of fans of movies and movie production, whether they are aware of the strange cult that is The Room or not.

I was expecting insights on a bizarre man and his ridiculous movie from another man who has always been a good sport about the whole ordeal. I didn't think that it would also be packed with wisdom, compassion and wit. Greg Sestero's hopes of being a big star are scorched, but you never sense that he would have done things differently. Like Tommy Wisou, he really does seem to believe in following your dreams, not matter how unsuited you are to them. At the same time Sestero is realistic and down to Earth: he never acknowledges The Room as anything but a fascinating catastrophe and paints Wisou as both endearing and highly problematic. His descriptions of the events that led to the movie's creation are just as stupefying as you'd expect.Anyone would want Sestero as a friend, and it sounds like someone as frantic as Wisou was lucky to have met him when he did. Their occasionally strained bond was so touching that I'd almost shed a few tears by the end. Highly recommended, and I look forward to the forthcoming film adaptation.

Tommy Wiseau would be the easiest person in the world to rip to pieces, but Greg Sestero produces a very sensitive and balanced book showing him for the complex character he is. Greg shows how Tommy is someone who's had a hard start in life and the things that have happened to him have probably shaped his innumerable quirks. As well as his comically poor film making decisions, Greg also shows his generosity and determination.We see the complete development of The Room and why it ends up like it does (despite the reasonable best efforts of the cast and crew). The oddities are explained and why such glaring errors made it to the screen.We get a little insight into Tommy's other businesses, although Tommy is exceptionally secretive about it. He is probably the most unlikely successful businessman ever. Somehow he made the jump from small time street vendor to owning multiple retail properties in prime locations and being a multi-millionaire. However Tommy proffers no reasonable explanation and Greg cannot add much.

Last year I watched The Room and like many viewers, asked myself 'how could this film ever get made?' and also: 'how could this happen?' The Disaster Artist explains it all. The creepy sex scenes, the pointless scene in the alley where they play football in suits, even the mid-film recasting of key actors. It very skilfully weaves in the authors' dreams of stardom in with his relationship with the mercurial and frankly, quite disturbing Tommy Wiseau, interspersing these with stories from when the film were made. The stories from the making of the film are really quite unbelievable, yet they make perfect sense in the context of the film itself. Parts of this book will make you cringe & wince in horror, whilst other parts will have you laughing out loud. Yet despite giving an insight into the mind of Tommy Wiseau, it isn't cruel towards him and doesn't mock or belittle him, which a lesser book might have. I would definitely recommend this book to anybody who has watched The Room and said to themselves, "What the hell did I just watch?"

Despite having seen The Room 3 times, meeting Tommy 3 times, and Greg Sestero twice, watched Best F(r)iends, and The Disaster Artist, as well as reading everything I could about the enigma that is Tommy Wiseau, I, like everyone else, was still totally at a loss as to who Tommy really is, and what makes him tick, until I read this book.It is a very raw, sad, frustrating, sometimes very painful, yet deeply emotional and at times positive book about friendship, loneliness, eccentricity, and complex friendship between Greg Sestero & Tommy Wiseau.It is much more than just a recall of the best, and worst moments during the making of The Room.It is an emotional rollercoaster of the complexities of both men's desires to succeed, at all costs.The last paragraph actually made me cry, with love, pride, and sadness for Tommy.Undoubtedly The best book I have read in a long time. X

This is a must-read for fans of The Room. Greg Sestero, who played the infamous 'Mark' in said movie, recounts his early days as a struggling actor, punctuated with uncredited roles as extras, a brief modelling stint in Milan, and acting classes...classes at which he has a fateful meeting with a pasty, raven-haired vampire of a man; a man with ambiguous European origins and a rather creepy laugh. This man is called Tommy Wiseau.Despite Tommy's class performances leading to stifled laughter from the other students and frustration from their teacher, Greg is somehow drawn to Tommy's unshaken confidence in his own ability, and the two become unlikely friends. Their bond over their joint struggle to get anywhere in show business is touchingly portrayed, and for those who might be expecting an exploitative exposé damning Wiseau, do not be afraid.Even when Tommy is at his worst while filming the room, Greg's fondness for Tommy never falters. Overall, the book celebrates 'The Room' as one man achieving his dream despite all the obstacles - lack of talent, an often repulsive personality and a cast and crew constantly at breaking point.I'm cynical enough to note that Tommy's dream wouldn't have seen the light of day had it not been for Tommy's inexplicably vast fortune - the origins of which are still unknown to this day - then again, you have to admire the audacity of someone who makes something so utterly self-indulgent and yet still manages to capture the imagination of millions worldwide.