This film had some of the shine taken off of it due to sexual misconduct allegations against James Franco. This supposedly caused the film to lose out on many of the awards it was widely expected to win at the time. Still I’ve always been an advocate of separating the artist from the art, even if there is a strange resonance between the events depicted here involving a sex scene starring the main character and Franco’s apparent actions in real life. Franco may or may not be a good person but this is still an amazing film.

In 1998 aspiring actor Greg Sestero is impressed by his classmate Tommy Wiseau’s uninhibited performance in acting class and after asking to practise with him, they become friends. Tommy however is highly eccentric and secretive about his past and even his real age, claiming only that he wants to be an actor. They move together to Los Angeles after Greg discovers that Tommy is wealthy enough to afford a home there though the source of his money is as mysterious as everything else about him. Greg has minor success in auditions but Tommy keeps getting rejected due to his unusual accent and bizarre behavior. Finally prompted by an off the cuff suggestion by Greg, Tommy decides to make his own film, called The Room, with himself as the star. He spends some time writing his own script and then embarks on the production, buying equipment, hiring technical staff and actors while Greg acts as his co-producer and co-star. Tommy somehow has the money to pay for all this but it is obvious to everyone involved that he has zero knowledge of filmmaking.

As I knew nothing about this film going in beyond the fact that it’s a comedic documentary, I thought for the longest time that this must be some of kind fake parody or at least highly exaggerated. It turns out that not only is it all true but the scenes shown of The Room here are pretty much shot for shot remakes of the real thing. It’s an astounding turn of events and I found it impossible to look away from the trainwreck of the whole production just as one is irresistibly attracted to real life disasters. Tommy regularly does things just because it’s what he thinks a proper Hollywood production would do even if it makes no sense. As my wife notes, there are plenty of bad films out there. What makes this so striking, is that not only does Tommy know nothing, he isn’t even aware that he knows nothing. In fact, it doesn’t even seem like he has much love for films or has watched many of them. As the other actors he has hired speculates, it seems more like he is using this as an outlet for his own emotional distress.

Quite apart from the entertainment value of watching the unfolding disaster, this is also another one of those meta films which discuss the business of show business itself. For example one wonders why all these professionals are working with a moron like Tommy. Obviously money plays its part but as one middle-aged actress says, to her a day on the set of a bad film is still better than being at home not acting. Then there’s how Tommy, including the real one, seems to have retroactively claimed that he had always intended The Room to be a comedy because that is how it eventually found success even though everyone can tell that he meant it to be a serious drama. It makes for a truly weird weird spin of the death of the author. One might also question Greg’s involvement, who seems to have encouraged Tommy throughout his insane venture. Is Greg a genuine friend or an opportunist taking advantage of his wealth? To this day, the real Tommy continues to call Greg his best friend. There is so much to pick apart here.

After watching this I have zero desire to watch the real The Room but knowing that it simply exists is incredibly satisfying. This is by all measures a fantastic documentary of a real life event that perfectly epitomizes the principle that the truth is always stranger than fiction. Unfortunately that also seems to apply to Franco himself who is patently cognizant enough to understand how offensive and uncomfortable it is to everyone else involved when Tommy shot his sex scene and yet in his own life seems to have done the same thing to students in his acting class.