Release date: June 27, 2003
Genres: Drama, Comedy
Director: Tommy Wiseau
Writers: Tommy Wiseau
Starring: Tommy Wiseau, Greg Sestero, Juliette Danielle
The Room is affectionately known as one of the worst films ever made. It’s intended as a drama about Johnny (Tommy Wiseau), a loving man whose girlfriend Lisa (Juliette Danielle) is starting to develop an interest in Mark (Greg Sestero), Johnny’s best friend, just a few weeks before their wedding. Throw in a bunch of other characters that never quite seem like they belong in the movie and you have The Room, a hilariously bad movie with some of the worst line delivery, worst acting, and worst writing I’ve ever seen.
The only reason anyone knows about this stupid thing is because of its “so bad it’s good” reputation, which I can verify is half-true. The movie is truly an atrocity, but it’s not exactly good as a result. Though this film has a compilation of hilarious moments, it also has quite a lot of material that is just plain boring. Unfortunately, most movies that fall into the category of “so bad they’re good” really are mostly just boring movies with a few hilarious moments here and there. The movie looks terrible, is terribly edited, terribly dubbed over, has terrible continuity errors, and just never seems to be focused on anything. It’s just a mess of a film that is so shockingly bad at the beginning that it’s funny. The shock wears off though, and the film becomes a boring slog.
The real intrigue in this film comes from the fact that its creator (director, writer, producer, and star), Tommy Wiseau, is such a bizarre figure. I feel like I want to know more about him and how he managed to convince an entire cast and crew to work on this terrible movie.
Overall, The Room truly is as bad as everyone says. Unfortunately, it’s not as entertaining as I would have hoped and, though the runtime is a merciful hour and a half, it still manages to feel like a day.