Sometimes it's difficult knowing where to start in reviewing a movie. This film is perhaps the ultimate example where words are simply not enough. The Room is a film that almost defies description. It really has to be experienced in order to understand why it has garnered a reputation as the most celebrated bad movie of the last decade. Unlike previous so-bad-they're-good flicks such as Plan 9 From Outer Space or Troll 2 and countless others, The Room is not a sci-fi, horror or action flick. It is pure and simply a melodrama. This explains part of its huge impact in that it sort of appeals to both male and female audiences alike, while it is really quite unusual to see a film in this genre being quite so spectacularly bad. The Room is undoubtedly one of the funniest things I have seen in a long, long time.
I'm not going to go into specifics here as to individual moments that make The Room the comedy classic that it has become, simply because there are far too many and it really needs to be seen to be believed. However, it would be remiss to not mention the character Johnny played by Tommy Wiseau. Johnny is the central character in the story. He is an overly nice character who others take advantage of. He seems to either be retarded or is recovering from a stroke. Wiseau is a very unusual central character, while his sex scenes are deeply disturbing - almost like scenes from a scary sci-fi horror film. Wiseau is of course the auteur behind this thing, he wrote and directed it and so therefore needs to be given some credit for producing something that is simultaneously so bad yet so committed and so deadly serious. He has attempted to claim after the event that The Room was intended as a black comedy. Don't be fooled by this for a second, this movie plays it completely straight. It's so very funny because of this fact. It is an absolute impossibility to make the specific anti-genius of The Room intentionally.
I have seen it a couple of times. The second of which was at a public screening and I have to report that I have never witnessed anything like it. It was the closest a movie-going experience ever got to the feel of going to a gig. The sense of excitement beforehand was palpable and once the movie started rolling the audience was extremely lively throughout with no let up from start to finish. It ended with a standing ovation. It was quite incredible. I have never witnessed the like before. Tommy Wiseau I salute you.
I'm not going to go into specifics here as to individual moments that make The Room the comedy classic that it has become, simply because there are far too many and it really needs to be seen to be believed. However, it would be remiss to not mention the character Johnny played by Tommy Wiseau. Johnny is the central character in the story. He is an overly nice character who others take advantage of. He seems to either be retarded or is recovering from a stroke. Wiseau is a very unusual central character, while his sex scenes are deeply disturbing - almost like scenes from a scary sci-fi horror film. Wiseau is of course the auteur behind this thing, he wrote and directed it and so therefore needs to be given some credit for producing something that is simultaneously so bad yet so committed and so deadly serious. He has attempted to claim after the event that The Room was intended as a black comedy. Don't be fooled by this for a second, this movie plays it completely straight. It's so very funny because of this fact. It is an absolute impossibility to make the specific anti-genius of The Room intentionally.
I have seen it a couple of times. The second of which was at a public screening and I have to report that I have never witnessed anything like it. It was the closest a movie-going experience ever got to the feel of going to a gig. The sense of excitement beforehand was palpable and once the movie started rolling the audience was extremely lively throughout with no let up from start to finish. It ended with a standing ovation. It was quite incredible. I have never witnessed the like before. Tommy Wiseau I salute you.