“Oh hi Gammabit!”
In this addition to WTF Monday, the Cinema Simpleton offers this title for your common senses: The Room. Think its simple enough to be interpreted? Not so fast. You’ve probably never witnessed the “art” that is Tommy Wiseau.
Originally designed to be a theatre production, Wiseau’s vision of a San Francisco couple in the middle of a love affair was turned into an independent film in 2002. In fact, The Room is so independent that in order to obtain a copy at a video retail store, said store would have to call up the production company, Wiseau Films to ask for a video to be shipped to them.
There really is no other way to put it other than The Room is pure nonsense. Every single little scene will leave you thinking “WTF” if not laughing uncontrollably at its stupidity or realizing that half the movie’s extras could have made a better film with a handheld camcorder. The script, the “plot”, the acting, the character arcs, and the set design: every one of them has the words “my Hollywood dream is over.”
Wiseau plays what only he can believe to be the charismatic Johnny, a banker engaged to Lisa (Juliette Danielle). His performance is comparable to that of a village drunk, who sometimes can’t put a comprehensible word out of his mouth. Which is ironic under a) Johnny’s character supposedly doesn’t drink and b) more than half of Wiseau’s lines are poorly dubbed over. His acting is actually so bad that he’s not even convincing when his character is drunk!
The character of Lisa is a woman who is about simple to analyze as a Rubik’s Cube. Her personality is never consistent, being an ice queen in front of characters one scene and later a brainless nymphomaniac in front of the same characters! She also has zero chemistry with Wiseau or her secret lover, Mark.
Greg Sestero as Mark is the closest thing to a real person this movie has. But his performance is ruined through (here’s a surprise) bad acting and dialogue so awkward you’ll be left wondering how he can say any line with a straight face. It will leave you scratching your head until it bleeds while asking how Mark can be friends with Johnny or any of these people.
Another character to mention would be that of Denny (Phillip Haldiman). Supposedly he is the stand-in for Johnny and Lisa’s son, which makes logical sense due to the fact that he’s about ten times more screwed up then they are! His childish behavior for a teenager will leave you thinking he was kept locked in a cellar with Barney the Dinosaur for the last six years of his adolescence, along with disturbing sexual desires that no one will think is normal. There’s nothing comical about his performance, he’s as irritating as gum stuck to your shoe. In a nutshell, that’s his role in this movie.
Along with those names are many more idiotic characters, some of which you’ll be thankful not to know their names and story lines that are introduced at random without conclusion. Most of the time they aren’t even addressed again!
In this addition to WTF Monday, the Cinema Simpleton offers this title for your common senses: The Room. Think its simple enough to be interpreted? Not so fast. You’ve probably never witnessed the “art” that is Tommy Wiseau.
Originally designed to be a theatre production, Wiseau’s vision of a San Francisco couple in the middle of a love affair was turned into an independent film in 2002. In fact, The Room is so independent that in order to obtain a copy at a video retail store, said store would have to call up the production company, Wiseau Films to ask for a video to be shipped to them.
There really is no other way to put it other than The Room is pure nonsense. Every single little scene will leave you thinking “WTF” if not laughing uncontrollably at its stupidity or realizing that half the movie’s extras could have made a better film with a handheld camcorder. The script, the “plot”, the acting, the character arcs, and the set design: every one of them has the words “my Hollywood dream is over.”
Wiseau plays what only he can believe to be the charismatic Johnny, a banker engaged to Lisa (Juliette Danielle). His performance is comparable to that of a village drunk, who sometimes can’t put a comprehensible word out of his mouth. Which is ironic under a) Johnny’s character supposedly doesn’t drink and b) more than half of Wiseau’s lines are poorly dubbed over. His acting is actually so bad that he’s not even convincing when his character is drunk!
The character of Lisa is a woman who is about simple to analyze as a Rubik’s Cube. Her personality is never consistent, being an ice queen in front of characters one scene and later a brainless nymphomaniac in front of the same characters! She also has zero chemistry with Wiseau or her secret lover, Mark.
Greg Sestero as Mark is the closest thing to a real person this movie has. But his performance is ruined through (here’s a surprise) bad acting and dialogue so awkward you’ll be left wondering how he can say any line with a straight face. It will leave you scratching your head until it bleeds while asking how Mark can be friends with Johnny or any of these people.
Another character to mention would be that of Denny (Phillip Haldiman). Supposedly he is the stand-in for Johnny and Lisa’s son, which makes logical sense due to the fact that he’s about ten times more screwed up then they are! His childish behavior for a teenager will leave you thinking he was kept locked in a cellar with Barney the Dinosaur for the last six years of his adolescence, along with disturbing sexual desires that no one will think is normal. There’s nothing comical about his performance, he’s as irritating as gum stuck to your shoe. In a nutshell, that’s his role in this movie.
Along with those names are many more idiotic characters, some of which you’ll be thankful not to know their names and story lines that are introduced at random without conclusion. Most of the time they aren’t even addressed again!
A majority of this film is shot on a Los Angeles studio set, with all the San Fransisco scenery done in second unit production. This means every scene we see of characters sitting around on the rooftop of their apartment building is just painfully obvious green screen effects. They enter and exit through a puny metal stairwell, which the viewers I watched this film called "The Shack."
You will be utterly astounded at how laughably terrible this film is. What Wiseau has claimed to be a black comedy is obviously his failed attempt at a solid drama that is just plummeting hard down a deep chasm for an hour and a half before exploding at the bottom like a nuclear bomb.
One example of the terrible editing is the following. After watching practically thirty minutes of sex scenes at the movie’s start, you will find that the filmmakers are so lazy to not even bother shooting their third one. Instead, they mix around the footage of the first sex scene and expect the audience to either ignorantly or idiotically think they’re seeing something new.
From beginning to end, you will hardly find a scene not to loathe with hatred or fall out of your seat laughing at. Due to The Room’s large Internet popularity, many short clips can be found online, or midnight screenings can be found across North America hosted by Tommy Wiseau himself. Even the viewers of said screenings take part at loudly criticizing the movie.
Despite the mountainous levels of laughter that I experienced while watching the film, it comes back to the point that it’s only funny because it’s utterly terrible. To give it a rating of anything above 1 would be as logical as awarding a student extra credit for putting down Michael Jackson as the answer to “Who was the first President of the United States?”
You will be utterly astounded at how laughably terrible this film is. What Wiseau has claimed to be a black comedy is obviously his failed attempt at a solid drama that is just plummeting hard down a deep chasm for an hour and a half before exploding at the bottom like a nuclear bomb.
One example of the terrible editing is the following. After watching practically thirty minutes of sex scenes at the movie’s start, you will find that the filmmakers are so lazy to not even bother shooting their third one. Instead, they mix around the footage of the first sex scene and expect the audience to either ignorantly or idiotically think they’re seeing something new.
From beginning to end, you will hardly find a scene not to loathe with hatred or fall out of your seat laughing at. Due to The Room’s large Internet popularity, many short clips can be found online, or midnight screenings can be found across North America hosted by Tommy Wiseau himself. Even the viewers of said screenings take part at loudly criticizing the movie.
Despite the mountainous levels of laughter that I experienced while watching the film, it comes back to the point that it’s only funny because it’s utterly terrible. To give it a rating of anything above 1 would be as logical as awarding a student extra credit for putting down Michael Jackson as the answer to “Who was the first President of the United States?”
The Room. If you're not thinking "WTF" by the end of it, then frankly, WTF is wrong with you?
-Braydon K
0/10
-Braydon K
0/10
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