Friday, March 12, 2010
Once upon a time in 2003, a starstruck dreamer named Tommy Wiseau made a movie called "The Room." It might possibly be one of the worst movies ever made.
Everything from the acting and cinematography to the soap operatic script is absolutely terrible, but at the same time, awesome.
A newfound admiration for this film has surfaced, with a cult following, which sometimes happens to movies that come in under the radar and don’t do so well at box office. Cult movies are played at midnight showings at hip venues willing to fill their establishments with film nerds and snobs, all hopped-up on god-knows-what, yelling at the screen.
What you have in “The Room” is a perfect midnight movie. Every scene is so ludicrous that you can’t help but laugh. Because the movie takes itself seriously! The plot is half of the awful fun, because there really isn’t one.
With limited or no experience, Wiseau stars, and he also wrote, directed, produced and financed this gem. He's Johnny, a somewhat successful banker about to get married. The plot thickens when his girlfriend isn't faithful. His bride-to-be, Lisa, is played by this nobody actress Juliette Danielle, who is not as attractive as the movie wants her to be - because she's in four ridiculous sex scenes within the first 20 minutes.
Pointless scene after pointless scene unfolds, and characters don’t make any sense. It felt like watching a soap opera written by a drugged-out soft-core porn writer. One minute everyone is hanging out in Johnny’s apartment, then there's a fiasco on the roof, which seems to be the communal hang-out area for the tenants, involving Denny. This kid's age is debatable, and he obviously lacks normal human interaction, but describing him as one of the weirdest characters ever is saying a lot because every person seems to be off their rocker.
The lunacy of almost every awkward scene is just mind-boggling. The sheer fact that Wiseau thought that this movie was going to be a hit is an anomaly. I can’t believe he went through with it, but I'm sure glad he did, because I haven’t laughed out loud like that in a movie theatre in a really long time.
And now everyone else can witness first-hand the joke that is “The Room.” The Tivoli is having midnight showings this weekend (Friday and Saturday, March 12 and 13) and the weekend of April 9-10.
And if you really want to get crazy in the theater, there is a list of gags you can do while the movie's going on -- such as yell quotes at the screen, hurl plastic spoons every time you see a framed piece of cutlery, or toss a football around.
The football seems to be the funniest gag that I’ve heard, since there are a couple scenes with the dimwitted cast tossing a football around in tuxedos for no apparent reason.
You really need to view it for yourself to really know what I’m talking about and what everyone else will be talking about.
1/2 star
Comments
chasham (anonymous) says...
Are you sure that Quentin Tarentino didn't direct this movie?
March 12, 2010 at 5:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )