The official poster of the film was printed with New York Magazine's evaluation of the film, " a work of genius, dedicated to those who dream big, but crashed to the bottom but succeeded by surprise ." The posters in Hong Kong directly wrote "When a shadow idiot meets an insane talent, the rotten end is the king."
This has to be reminiscent of another movie.
1994's Ed Wood, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp.
The Disaster Artist is a biography of Tommy Wiseau about the birth of his "room".
And "Ed Wood" is a biography about Ed Wood, telling the birth process of his "Outer Space 9 Project".
Of course, "The Room" was Tommy Wiseau's debut, so The Disaster Artist was almost entirely recreated as it was shot.
And "Outer Space 9 Project" is Ed Wood's fourth feature film. In "Ed Wood", the director used refined language to describe his debut "Glen or Glenda" and the third "Bride of the The birth of Monster" work, but in the end, it ended successfully with this amazing work.
Forgive my ignorance, I had absolutely no idea that Tommy Wiseau and the room existed before The Disaster Artist. But even without Tim Burton, Ed Wood's reputation as the "King of Bad Movies" is still alive and well.
In 1980, the famous film critic Michael Medved and his brother Harry published a book "The Golden Turkey Awards" after watching more than 2,000 bad films , listing the bad films of all time in their hearts. list, and invite readers to vote for the best among them. Based on more than 3,000 letters they received, they chose the worst movie of all time, "Project 9 from Outer Space" and " King of Bad Movies" Ed Wood.
And "Room" is called "Citizen Kane of the bad film industry". I can't find the source. I can only boldly guess that it was widely spread due to the comments of an audience.
Which movie is the worst movie of all time, it's hard to talk about it, and I'm afraid I can't pick a convincing result.
But who is the "King of Bad Movies"?
Maybe it's up to them to compete with how they're portrayed on screen.
Tommy Wessel
As the most mysterious man in Hollywood, no one knows his age, his hometown, his job, the only certainty is that he has a bottomless bank account. Then his biography can only start from the perspective of his friend Greg.
Tommy in Greg's eyes is largely Tommy in the eyes of the audience. Besides, Greg should be a foil for Tommy. Greg's character traits, and how they get along, are the way viewers complete Tommy's character in their minds.
Therefore, the main line of the film is set as " Tommy and Greg's friendship ".
They met through acting classes. One is not good at releasing emotions and always has reservations;
But they all have actor dreams . They long to be recognized.
Tommy is so ugly, the acting teacher says he has a villain face, a real Frankenstein; the producer says he won't be an actor in a million years. Greg has a good skin, but he has no acting skills. His mother thinks he is whimsical, and his agent will not give him a job.
They think they're like the James Dean that he used to be, when everyone said he wasn't good enough, he held on to his dreams and finally proved himself. They will do the same, let everyone know their names.
No one shoots them, so they make their own.
In order to understand the film, I also watched "Room". I really admire the fans who found it fun in the first place and made it a cult classic. Yu Lanlan remade almost all the most talked about clips in the "room" frame by frame, and reproduced the shooting process of these "classic clips".
The scene of "Room" is extremely simple, and the story is so simple that it is outrageous. If it weren't for Yu Lanlan, it is estimated that we, whose imagination is limited by poverty, would not be able to figure out how to spend 6 million US dollars. You know, Lost in Translation, which was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in the same year, cost only $4 million to make.
Regardless of whether it requires a different camera crew, the film digital camera equipment is all set. Regardless of whether it is a few steps away, there is a real street, and I will build one in the studio. I don't care if there is a rooftop that can be photographed on the roof of my house, I will order a set for me after the cutout. ...
Seeing the filming process of the film, I am afraid that no one will not express the emotion " rich is self-willed ". This is also the reason why "Room" failed in the mainstream film industry: the local tycoon with no common sense of film art is still an arbitrary tyrant .
But fortunately, the creators did not just want to restore the shooting process of "Room", a farce that made people laugh; but also deconstructed the creative process and content of "Room" into "Tommy" Friendship with Greg" .
What kind of story does the "room" tell?
A good man is full of plans for his future with his girlfriend, only to discover that his girlfriend cheated on his best friend, and he committed suicide by drinking a gun after being betrayed. In The Disaster Artist, the girlfriend is deconstructed as Greg.
Most of the scenes in "The Room" are derived from the lives of Tommy and Greg .
In the "room", the male protagonist and his friend suddenly asked about their friend's sex life during the conversation in the cafe. In life, Tommy taught Greg to act without regard to the people around him.
The classic "you are tearing me apart" by the male protagonist, Lisa, is from Tommy and Greg's favorite movie "Rebel Without a Cause".
The rooftop that often appears in the "room" is where Tommy and Greg meet and never give up on their dreams.
The inexplicably played football in the "room" is a sport that Tommy and Greg often play together. In "The Room", the male protagonist is betrayed by his girlfriend. In life, Tommy regards Greg moving to live with his girlfriend as a betrayal.
...
Throughout the shooting process, Tommy's mood completely changed with Greg's behavior. He took out his anger at Greg on the crew, which eventually led to Greg's break with him.
Of course, at the climax of the film, when "The Room" was released, Greg, who just wanted to bury this dark history, ended up appearing at the premiere with Tommy. When all the audience laughed and Tommy was hurt, Greg extended the hand of friendship, and Tommy eventually reconciled.
"The Disaster Artist" ends up being a good comedy , but it's an underwhelming biopic .
We do see Tommy Wiseau 's madness, eccentricity and even fragility, but it doesn't stop there. For the audience, he is still just a symbol, a fog . It is difficult for us to fathom the emotional logic behind his character traits.
Not only Tommy, but Greg, a character we know so little about, that the change in his emotional attitude towards Tommy seems rather rigid. From the breakup to the final reconciliation, the internal logic does not even leave the audience the opportunity to speculate.
And "Room" was eventually sought after and became a fan like Tommy in the film, and Fu Lanlan did not give an explanation for even one or two scenes. In reality, it was the film's promotion " Watching this film is like getting stabbed in the head " that attracted two film majors, who were hooked on the film and organized a viewing party and creatively invented the film. Ceremony such as throwing rugby.
But most of all, Tommy Wiseau's story and the "hold on to the dream" that the creators are trying to hook up are particularly far-fetched . In the so-called shooting stage of pursuing dreams despite the denial of everyone, the creator's characterization only brought the effect of "money is self-willed". Although insisting on a dream is barely justified, the shouting clips interspersed in the film can only become chicken soup forcibly stuffed into the audience.
And the end point of the film gave the audience another bowl of poisonous chicken soup, " if you work hard to the extreme, you can succeed ", although this success is not recognized by the mainstream or not. But the problem arose again. It is difficult to say that the shooting scenes of the film show Tommy's efforts, and it is still a willful victory just to have money . While the film does not explain why a serious work is considered a comedy, perhaps it is the unwillingness to deconstruct the bowl of chicken soup, and the film ultimately regards the irony as a victory for Tommy.
However, James Franco's performance is really irreproachable , and it is difficult to tell whether it is true or false from Tommy Wiseau. Even Tommy himself gave Franco a 99.9 for his performance, with a 0.1 deducted because he felt there was a problem with the lighting.
The truth is, Tommy is the one to watch with his sunglasses on.
Ed Wood
He is just an ordinary person, and his story does not need the perspective of others. His dream is to be a storyteller.
From the beginning of the film, Burton has shaped his optimism. In all the bad reviews of their performances in the newspapers, what he saw was the only good thing, our costumes were realistic.
Ed is just an inconspicuous little person in Hollywood. He has no background or family background, but he can be said to be trying his best to pursue his dream.
He can cut out a story from discarded film; he can reveal the secret of his cross-dressing in order to get the opportunity to direct; he can beg famous actors to participate in order to attract investment.
Even if there is no investment, even if he is abandoned by his girlfriend, even if the protagonist dies, it will never prevent him from completing the film.
It is also about "people who dream big, but fall to the bottom", "Ed Wood" is undoubtedly much better than "The Disaster Artist" .
Ed Wood in the film is not just a three-dimensional person, but a person who can resonate with the audience . He is the representative of the little people who will overcome all kinds of difficulties in order to realize their dreams. We can see his enthusiasm and tenacity, while feeling his self-doubt and frustration. His every move is clear and full of logic.
Burton's restoration of his filming location is equally ironic. His films are rotten and poor.
Because he has no money, other people shoot two scenes a day, he can make twenty or thirty scenes, no matter how he wears it, he will always pass one. Because he has no money, his props and special effects are outrageously fake, but he doesn't care about the details, the important thing is the story. Because he had no money, he couldn't afford to wait. In the same scene, one second was night and the next second became day.
...
Fortunately, he is poor enough, otherwise he might be a mediocre bad film director.
Whether it's Tommy or Ed, after seeing their work, probably everyone thinks, this is fine, I can be a director too.
But we ordinary people don't have Tommy's financial resources, and I'm afraid we can't have Ed's optimism, enthusiasm, and tenacity. It's too easy for us to retreat.
"Ed Wood" also gave the audience the same bowl of chicken soup to "hold on to the dream". Hold on to your dreams even if you do the worst . But Ed Wood's life has indeed been interpreting this sentence. So, at the premiere of "Project 9 in Outer Space", Ed's excitement as he read the lines he wrote along with the film was moving.
And the film did not take the opportunity to offer the magic weapon of inspirational films "as long as you work hard, you can succeed". At the end of the film, there is no bad comment from the audience on "Project 9 in Outer Space", but only Ed's self-affirmation. This is the story he wants to tell, and he will be remembered for it. For Ed, in a way, his dream has come true. But that has nothing to do with mainstream-approved success. More ironically, he worked hard all his life but never succeeded .
After all, Tommy and Ed are people in their own world.
They all made epic bad movies with the most serious and serious attitude.
But Tommy 's dream can be supported by rich financial resources, and his story is called rich and willful .
But Ed is just an ordinary person. All he has is a passion and an unwavering love for movies. His story is the struggle of little people . But the difference between him and ordinary people is that he can always regroup after being denied time and time again, and despite repeated defeats, he can always defeat and fight.
It is a pity that Ed did not get the slightest praise during his lifetime. His whole life has been plagued by poverty and depression, but even so, he still does everything he can to continue his dream of telling stories for everyone.
In the end, their efforts could not be recognized by the orthodox, but they all won a place for themselves with their unique styles.
But compared to the two, I stand with Ed Wood.
Compared to Tommy, his passion and persistence for dreams are more moving and purer. He is even more worthy of the title of "King of Bad Movies".
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