3. The Room (2003, Dir. Tommy Wiseau)
The Room is widely regarded as one of the worst films of all time. An independent film shot on a budget of $7 million, this is a film by a man who knows so little about filmmaking that he didnt even know the difference between 35mm film and digital videotape. It's pretty much just a poorly concieved and executed relationship drama. And as well as being completely awful, its enormously self-indulgent. One of the big things that makes this film so self-indulgent is Wiseaus character Johnny. In short: hes a total Mary Sue. Almost every scene has someone mentioning what a great guy Johnny is, hes never shown to have any kind of personality flaws, almost all of the characters are defined by their relationships with him, and the entire story is about everyone in his life completely dicking him over. It also seems that Wiseau used the film as a vehicle to air his own grievances against women with several cast members speculating that Johnnys cheating girlfriend Lisa represents Wiseaus opinion of women. It certainly would explain the line Oh man, I just can't figure women out. Sometimes they're just too smart. Sometimes they're just flat-out stupid. Other times they're just evil. The film also contains several gratuitous and protracted sex scenes starring Wiseau. That he insisted on shooting while completely naked. So to avoid accidentally penetrating actress Juliette Danielle, he positioned himself so that his groin was level with her navel. So because of his egotism and self indulgence, in those scenes he is literally banging his penis against her stomach. Its no wonder several actresses were cast as Lisa but then resigned. Wiseau let his ego bleed into the films production as well with the opening credits listing him as the star, writer, director, producer, and executive producer. Only a man with a sky high ego gives himself five separate credits within the space of twenty seconds. On top of that, the main component of the films advertising was a billboard with Wiseaus face on it and some vague information about the film. And he continued to pay for that billboard to stay up for five years after the film was released. This film is a complete car crash from start to finish with practically no redeeming elements. Wiseaus egotism and self-indulgence arent entirely to blame for The Room being such a steaming pile of elephant dung but it certainly was a big part of it.