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Tommy Wiseau’s infamous film The Room is so bad, it’s good

“A film with the passion of Tennessee Williams” and “The best picture of the year” are two unaccredited “reviews” that flash across the screen during the trailer for Tommy Wiseau’s The Room.

Within the first three minutes of the film, it’s hard to believe that anyone besides Wiseau (the writer, director, producer, executive producer and star of this abomination) said those words.

Johnny (Wiseau), a longhaired banker who, we are to understand, is the most generous and flawless person in human history, is about to marry Lisa (Juliette Danielle), a bipolar sociopath who decides that she doesn’t love him anymore.

Instead of telling Johnny this, she simply begins sleeping with his best friend Mark (Greg Sestero), who could probably find work as a department store mannequin.

Also mixed in is Lisa’s sometimes supportive, sometimes manipulative, always dreadful mother, who at one point claims to have breast cancer and then seems to forget about it.

Oh yeah, and there’s Denny (Philip Haldiman), Johnny’s protégé who admits that he likes to watch Johnny and Lisa in bed, and Johnny’s psychologist friend Peter (Kyle Vogt), who disappears halfway through the film and is replaced by another nameless character.

Then there’s a drug dealer who tries to rough up Denny, a faked pregnancy that is only mentioned once, Lisa lying about Johnny hitting her, and four of the most awkward sex scenes ever recorded on film.

Are you lost yet? Well, don’t worry too much about the plot, it doesn’t appear to have been overly important to Wiseau. Nor, for that matter, was the dialogue, character development, acting, continuity, music, dubbing or lighting.

Wiseau, and his clunky delivery, comes off as a less charming version of Borat, and his homespun wisdom about romance would probably seem extreme to a bigamist.

For instance, when Denny tells him that he wants to marry Lisa and have children with her, Johnny tells him to go for it, but only after he’s finished college.

Despite all of this, it must be said that Wiseau’s tone-deaf approach to filmmaking makes for an entertaining movie. Your best bet would be to get some of your friends together and head down to Cinematheque for what will prove to be a hilarious evening. The Room is a crash course in the “so bad, it’s good” concept.

Consider this the Plan 9 from Outer Space of the indie generation.

Published in Volume 64, Number 27 of The Uniter (June 30, 2010)

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