James Franco’s The Disaster Artist is like watching a slow inevitable crash.
And you can’t wait for it to crash.
Tommy Wiseu is a middle-age man after nearly being killed in a car crash decides to focus on the thing that brings him the most joy in life—acting.
Unfortunately he is a terrible actor.
Greg Sistero is a 19 year old model who wants to be an actor, but doesn’t have the courage to actually emote when standing in front of an audience.
One day during an acting lesson Greg is rightfully chastised for his performance of a scene from Waiting for Godot. The instructor, played Melanie Griffin, asks Greg if he even wants to be an actor. “Because it sure doesn’t look like it,” she scolds him in front of the class. After he sits down the instructor asks if there is anyone else who has brought a scene to share.
Tommy Wiseu calls out from the back of the class, saying he has brought one. He walks slowly and deliberately to the stage. He brings an unprepared female classmate to the stage with him. James Franco keeps Tommy’s face hidden as he readies for the scene. He reveals his face by yelling “Stella!”
For the next minute, Tommy, thinks he is doing A Street Car Names Desire, is really just screaming “Stella!” as he throws chairs, props and climbs the scaffolding by the stage. He ends the scene on the floor as if he has had a heart attack.
Greg is so taken aback by Tommy’s boldness, he asks Tommy to do a scene with him in a future.
“You wannda a scene with me?” Tommy asks in his clearly Eastern European accent.
“Yes,” Greg replies.
“Okay.” Tommy replies and walks off to his car.
The next day Tommy unexpectedly drives by Sistreos house. Wiseu takes Sistreo to a restuarant for lunch. In the car, we learn something very important about Tommy.
“Never ask anything about me.”
Greg is not allowed to know anything about Tommy, unless Tommy tells it to him.
This is the basis for the entire friendship.
Where Wiseu asks him why he wants to do a scene with him. Greg tells him he wants to have the fearless he showed in class. To show Greg how to do it, he makes him perform a scene at the top of his lungs right there in the restaurant. After getting finishing the scene Greg is elated and feels more alive than ever before.
Tommy and Greg’s strange friendship grows. Tommy reveals that he owns an apartment in LA, and he invites Greg to move to LA with him.
They move to LA, and Greg slowly gets an agent and more work. While Tommy invariably continues to struggle and not find work.
One day, deep in depression, Greg finds Tommy standing at the top of their apartment complex. While complaining about the difficulty of trying to make a career in LA, Greg off handedly says, “If only we could make our own movie.”
And the light bulb goes off for Tommy. Mysteriously he can afford to make his own movie. And this is before the days of Youtube. He becomes the ultimate in choosing yourself.
So that’s what he sets out to do. He types, yes, types on an actual typewriter an incoherent script.
Tommy asks Greg to read the script, and in spite of his clear dislike of the script, he tells Tommy that it’s great.
Tommy uses his never explained inexhaustible supply of money to buy a camera rental store for the cameras, to shot the movie on both 35mm and HD digital. Clearly unfamiliar with how a movie is made Tommy plows ahead.
The production surprisingly begins well. But as time marches along, Tommy becomes more and more erratic. Sensitive to the supposedly hidden criticisms about him and the movie. Fights begin on the set, crew are fired and replaced.
Greg and Tommy’s friendship ends as the movie reaches it’s production. After several months, Tommy reaches out to Greg to come to the premiere of the movie. Again, using his money, Tommy buys out a movie theater for the premiere.
The movie is not received in the way Tommy thought it would be or the way he wanted it to be. As the audience begins to realize how terrible the film is, they begin to cheer it on in its ineptitude. Distraught Tommy leaves the theater. Greg comforts him. Reminding him that he made an actual movie. Something that few people have actually done. And though it may not be how he thought it would be received, the audience is clearly enjoying themselves.
Final Thoughts
James Franco directed the movie in character as Tommy Wiseu. Not sure what that was like for everyone else.
The movie praises the idea of following your dream, but cautions us to be aware that the result of the dream may not be what we thought it would be. This is an ode to all the clueless dreamers.
I would recommend the movie, especially if you are fans of James Franco’s and Seth Rogen’s other movies.
The movie is rated R for nudity, and language.
Stay for the end scene after the credits, for me it's more enjoyable than any end scene done by Marvel.