20 Best Movies Of 2017
15. The Disaster Artist
The Room is one of the worst movies ever made. Not so bad it's good, or so bad it's funny; just so bad it's BAD. On the other hand, The Disaster Artist is a great film about a terrible one.
The enigmatic Tommy Wiseau is the role James Franco was meant to play, allowing him to take his more off-kilter sensibilities to their logical endpoint, and his transformation into the director-writer-producer-star is a sight to behold. He nails every strange affectation and tic, of which there are many, so much so that it's eerily similar.
What's important in making both performance and film work, though, is that Franco comes at it from a place of love. This easily could've been mocking, but Franco (who also directed) keeps it as straight as possible, mining the making of The Room for (a LOT) of laughs without allowing Wiseau to simply be a caricature or laughing stock - there's a slight air of tragedy to him as well.
The overarching narrative is rather straightforward, but the devil - and delight - is in the details; the absurd, insane, can't-believe-that-happened on set demands and interactions that are made even funnier because they (mostly) actually happened. Franco is backed-up by some great supporting turns, most notably from his younger brother Dave, as well as Seth Rogen, and it delivers one of the funniest movies of the year. It'll make for a heck of a double bill with The Room, but it's an excellent movie in its own right.