Film Review: The Room

In 2003, a man named Tommy Wiseau managed to accumulate six million dollars (which wikipedia alleges that was gathered from selling leather jackets that he had imported from South Korea) and with this, managed to produce, direct, write and star in the modern cult drama 'The Room'. However, this film did not gain a following in the same way the brilliant Kevin Smith's Clerks or Harmony Korine's Kids managed to. It was because it was that it is so inextricably bad that it has been referred to as the "Citizen Kane of bad movies".

It is obvious that Wiseau made The Room in an effort to showcase his err acting ability which is so poor makes Nicholas Cage's contribution to the remake of The Wicker Man Oscar worthy. Any scene that includes Wiseau open his mouth is absolutely hysterical and what makes the film all the more hilarious is how unaware Wiseau is of this fact. In an interview he was asked what he thought about people finding his attempted melodrama so humorous and alleged that he meant for it to be a "black comedy." However a black comedy implies a comedy that addresses taboo or uncomfortable subjects with an underlying satirical tone which is definitely not what is presented to the audience in The Room.

The following scene is an awesome example of a Wiseau's acting calibre:

The film has amassed fans in Hollywood such as Jonah Hill, 30 Rock bad-boy Alec Baldwin and even Pixies front-man Frank Black with reports that many stars enjoy acting out scenes from the film such as:

The film even without Wiseau's acting is a complete and utter mess. Many issues are raised and never addressed again such as a character revealing she has breast cancer without another mention of it during the remaining picture. In a similar vein, a new character is introduced twenty minutes before the sensational denouement and, even though seems to be the voice of reason, isn't even awarded a name. Wiseau's screenplay, too, is so amazingly bad that at times that the utterances make no sense whatsoever and the characters always start conversations with the iconic line "Oh Hi". Adding to this, a lot of the film is heavily dubbed.

Here's a prime example:

(this is perhaps the best thing ever put to screen)

If you haven't heard of The Room, you are seriously missing out. In LA, it is a cult sensation with special midnight screening's every month in the city which are always sold out. The only thing you should be doing right now is downloading it, then watching it and then getting a petition together to get it played in your local cinema because you will love it so much.

In short: you HAVE to see this film.

"Oh Hi! Tommy Wiseau"