‘The Room’ is an experience rarely achieved in art or theater, a production that is an absolute failure (in my opinion) on almost every conceivable level, that fails SO spectacularly, the failures somehow compliment each other transforming the work from an unwatchable mess to an almost mesmorising viewing experience that quite frankly, is a lightning in a bottle moment. If it hadnt been for these people, in these conditions, at this time, with these motivators. This film would have been a huge waste of time and money, and never would have seen the light of day.
As it stands these days, its almost a right of passage for the bad/cult film community to experience ‘The Room’ in its entirity. A privilage I had myself WAY back in 2006, and that I have had the absolute joy of inflicting on AT LEAST half a dozen people, converting them to devout Weisau-heads in the process.
The script tells the story of Johnny and Lisa, a couple in a seemingly happy relationship, but its slowly revealed that Lisa is in fact having an affair with Johnnys best friend Mark. The film basically follows Johnny, Lisa and Mark as Lisa falls further out of love with Johnny and more in love with Mark, while her friends and family take sides over the right course of action…Leading to a bloody resolution.
That, in essence is the main plot of the room, but it is FAR from the only thing going on, as we deal with pervy teenage 30 year olds, drug dealers, dogs that may or may not be real, unending games of football, cancer scares, pregnancy announcements and friends sneaking into random peoples apartments to have sex.
I cannot stress how, for the time, this film became the shorthand for ‘passion projects gone horribly HORRIBLY wrong’ and the fact that it was only when director and star Tommy Weisau pivoted from this being a serious film meant to tug at the heart strings to post modern black comedy, that it became the whipping boy for every half nickle critic from here to alberta. And while I disapprove of Weisaus attempt to play down what is clearly a quite embarrissing moment as something he ‘TOTALLY PLANNED ALL ALONG!!!’ And I absolutely dont like the way he behaved behind the scenes on this one (See: Fellow co-star Greg Sesteros fantastic book ‘The Disaster Artist’ for an idea of just how horrendous shooting with Tommy could be) I cant deny that what he made here, is ultimately, funny and enjoyable to me.
The scripts atrocious; plot lines drift in and out of the film in such a way that your never really truely sure whether you ACTUALLY need to be paying attention or not, sometimes the film will totally derail for 10 minutes on a plot that does absolutely nothing to move the film along, sometimes INCREDIBLY important lines that change the entire point of the film will be ADR’d in as a last second addition mumbled by Weisau.
The tones all over the place, its obsessed with badly shot sex scenes and seems to flail between wanting to be a drama, a bloody tragedy, a light hearted entertainment film, and a thriller. I lost track of the number of continuity errors, both in the script in terms of character background and in terms of literal on screen gaffes.
The act structuring is totally to pot, the film just seems to rev up to a set speed and pacing and then…right up until about 5 minutes off the end, when things go ABSOLUTELY insane, it just rides that pacing throughout with NO indication that its gonna do anything other than get through the script and end.
There are WAY too many characters, most of whome get almost no back story, no development and no character arc (outside of Johnny, Lisa and Mark) they dont feel like real people and because their stories are so underdeveloped, when they DO drop random things about themselves (such as Lisas mother announcing she has breast cancer) it seems almost farsical, because it comes out of nowhere, and is never really bought up again…Not ONLY that, but the characters are so wrapped up in their own stories when those kind of weird outlandish moments DO happen, they largely respond flatly, or drag it back to being about them…a personal favourite being when Lisa (falsely) tells her mother than Johnny didnt get a promotion, got drunk, and hit her. Lisas mother pauses for a second and says ‘…Johnny doesnt drink?’ as if THATS the surprising part of all this.
It reads like a script written by a guy who watched a ton of old ‘weepies’ on TCM, and wrote the thing in between commercial breaks, chucking in things he saw in those movies and lightly refining any plot holes to try and smooth it into some kind of cinematic meat obolisk. Nothing really lines up in this movie, everyone overreacts or doesnt react at all and the curveballs are so bluntly thrown out there, you’ll swear you could sue for the tonal whiplash.
The direction and cine arnt much better, Tommy infamously didnt know the difference between shooting on film or in HD, so he built a rig to hold both a film and digital camera and shot on both, cutting together the best takes from both cameras to create the final master.
Its a somewhat unusual end product, a film where the direction feels at odds with the cine, as, I assume someone who at least understood the basics of film making on a camera level, had to argue the toss with a guy who had NO idea what he was doing, outside of funding and writing the thing. The end result is a film that does have crisp, in focus and fairly well framed shots, directed as if it were a theater production and that the set was a stage. nothing feels right, nothing feels natural, it feels like how an alien might try to convince an audience that it was human too.
Theres a big lack of coverage or B-roll here, meaning the edits are a little rough around the edges, sequences run longer than I would have liked without cuts and an overeliance on the aforementioned sex scenes (which are badly framed, badly shot, deafened by THE most early 00’s RnB i’ve ever heard, and most of the time Tommys aiming a little higher than that target if you catch my drift) alongside some quite iffy CGI and greenscreen work that makes it look like folks are either 10 foot or 3 foot tall. its a mess that you can either choose to see as a ‘Striking vision from an independent film maker pouring his heart and sould into the production without full understanding of the tools…a RAW work!’ or ‘a vanity project by a guy who wanted to be James Deand and Marlon Brando, but had neither the talent or groundwork to get even close.’
Performances are horrendous, while Greg Sestero has gone onto decent things (I personally quite liked his turn in ‘Retro Puppet master’ Tommy Weisau should be studied in theater classes here on how performances can become infamously recieved. EVERY scene he’s in is memorable, quotable and bizarre in all the worst ways possible, he fails to nail a single emotional performance on ANY level. TRUELY it is the most bizarre performance both physically and in terms of line delivery that I have ever seen. I feel blessed in many ways for having lived in a time when I could witness such a unique and unusual turn.
The supporting cast, by contrast, all feel hammy, over the top, they cant make one line come out decently, its horrendous. again. your milage may vary, I personally can laugh my way through this whole thing and find it infinitely quotable, others, NORMAL people…may struggle inherently.
I struggle really with my feelings on the room. conventionally it fails on every level to even achieve the basics of what a good movie should strive for. But at the same time, I find the fact that Tommy and Greg believed in this thing so sincerely, and that it very nearly drove them to financial and emotional ruin so captivating, and the end product SO bizarre and distinct. That I ultimately keep coming back for more as the years go by.
Its a fun, and quirky picture thats infitnely quotable and weird in ways I didnt think were possible. Its been analyzed to death over the years, but I still think theres value every few years in just sitting down and taking this one in for what it is, one mans attempt to try and frustratingly open a sealed jar of beetroot while wearing oven mitts that have been duct taped on. Ahmen.
TYTD Reviews 