The whimsical and elusive Tommy Wiseau has managed a feat that none of us can imagine: creating an empire from the worst movie ever made. Initially panned by all critics, the movie was even dubbed “the Citizen Kane of bad movies” by Connecticut College Professor Ross Morin. Little is known of Wiseau’s origins, making the film all the more mysterious. However, I’m not here to discuss how people think it’s “horrible,” or to give it the title of “worst movie ever made.” I’m here to propose a controversial question: is “The Room” the best film ever made?
I’m not being ironic when I ask this question. Very few people have the talent to take the contents of “The Room” and make it as successful and marketable as it wound up being. I theorize that this is in part to Greg Sestero’s book “The Disaster Artist.” Sestero, who portrayed Johnny’s (Tommy Wiseau) best friend, Mark, in the film, wrote the novel to chronicle the unusual journey of its creation. The novel drew the attention of James Franco, who made an Oscar-winning adaptation of the book.
However, the main theory I have behind the success of “The Room” and how well it turned out has to do with the inner mechanisms of Tommy Wiseau. You can’t really explain what’s in his mind – how could we when we know so little? His filmmaking strategies have even been described to be strange: The man would show up to his own job late, he would down Red Bull by the bottle and would consume NyQuil during a cold to ensure that the film would be done. The cast of “The Room” underwent many changes, and the original cast member behind Mark left shortly before Sestero signed on.
The beauty of “The Room” lies in the fact that it is a beautiful disaster. The plot itself isn’t all that unusual: It’s the tale of a man who finds that the love of his life has betrayed him. However, the unusual dialogue, compiled with less than lackluster acting, made the film a trainwreck. Lines like “I got the results of the test back. I definitely have breast cancer” and Johnny’s strange laughing at Mark’s story of a girl getting beaten up for cheating make the film unnerving. The actions are remarkably out of place for the situations and dialogue going on.
Yet, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Without these oddities, “The Room” would not be the masterpiece that it is. It is with these oddities that the film is humorous, far more enjoyable than movies like “The Emoji Movie.” The viewer derives a pleasure from the poor acting, but yet are more drawn into the plot because the poor and strange acting calls attention to its dialogue. It’s successfully made an art out of the bad movie, it is the rose grown from the ashes of hell. Could you imagine a traditionally well acted, well written edition of “The Room?” It would not have garnered the attention it has, and it certainly wouldn’t be as revered – either ironically or ironically – as it is now. Because he has been able to draw art from the blood of the wretched, Wiseau retains a special kind of ingenuity often unseen.
Throughout scathing critiques, Tommy Wiseau can be seen on Twitter delivering positivity and unironically inspiring quotes such as:
“If a lot of people learn to love each other, the world will be a better place to live.”
Inspiring and inventive? I’ll take it.