Episode 23 — The Room: Director\'s Edition

[chachotron 0]

Last night I caught The Room for the first time, and definitely need to listen to this again.

Watching this movie, I actually thought about robots. (as in, the kind that are supposed to resemble people - not, like, industrial robots)

One of the challenges presented by the people who are working in robotics today is, they're not particularly lifelike yet, right? They're still essentially animatronic mannequins, and they're as "intelligent" and independent as whatever software is running them. In the future, they'll be like, say, Blade Runner, A.I., etc - much more realistic.

At some point along that curve, the pinnacle of robotic technology will be robots that talk and behave like the characters in this movie. It'll be like, "wow these robots look very realistic, and *almost* move like actual people, but they're not quite there yet, especially when it comes to how they talk..."

I give that, what..... 7 to 10 years...?

[RockyBergen 0]

Geez guys, you think you coulda let Greg talk at all??

[Wien 401]

One thing I don't think anyone has mentioned about this movie here is the bizarre soundtrack... it doesn't fit in with ANYTHING else going on at all, IMO (and I mean in terms of atmosphere, attitude, and production value). The score almost gives the movie this sense that the movie is actually about Loki, the Norse God of mischeif, manifesting himself in Tommy Wiseau's head and making him act all bizarre and do crazy things for his amusement.

 

The movie was apparently scored by by Loyola Marymount University music professor Mladen Milicevic. Despite thin experience in Hollywood, Milicevic seems to hail from a family steeped in film making experience and has done a lot of music production and scoring projects himself.

 

His scores really aren't all that bad honestly. I just can't help but get the feeling that when scoring The Room, he was really thinking to himself "I don't give a FUCK about what this movie is about. I'm going to prove to those bastards at New Line Cinema that I CAN score music for the Lord of the Rings movies, once and for all!"

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkvm1OywjFE&feature=plcp&context=C39c843dUDOEgsToPDskKBlul365lS5mucPovLjz4y

[ColinDenney 100]

Finally saw The Room! Saw the Q&A at The Music Box Theater with Tommy and Greg! Told him I loved him on the podcast!

[Nasher 29]

It is really a special movie made by special people.. god bless everyone involved for making the life affirming tale of Johnny come to life. While its no Birdemic.. it is highly entertaining to watch as a piece of storytelling.

[IMAHUGEHDTGMFAN 1837]

 

This is the cover design for the book... Greg said in this episode that it was going to be called "Trapped In The Room" but its now "The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside THE ROOM"

 

Links For Pre-Order

 

http://www.barnesand...Dcu1U-_-10%3A1

 

http://www.amazon.co...93/simonsayscom

[imhatch 271]

johnny's pink ribbon and denny creeping in the corner are amazing details.

[jarrycanada 2483]

Maximiliano- I don't know if they can say it's the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made, according to the book seller. I mean Birdemic is really the worst movie ever made. it does hold that title and delivers. I broke and got this on DVD and i have to say, the first 30 mins of this movie is just softcore porn. it's like they wanted to make a porn movie but halfway during making decided to make a feature film instead. The acting is daytime soap operas level, may even make some daytime soaps look good. I don't know if i like this movie all that much. The extras are worth the price of the dvd. IE the Q&A with Tommy Wiseau is like magic. it reminded me of the tv show lost, all your questions will be answered. leaving you with more questions then answers.

[PhillipMedoc 648]

Oh hi Earwolf! You're my favorite customer. Greg Sestero's book on the making of The Room is finally out! The reviews are pretty good; I'm looking forward to adding it to my backlog.

[alkaline_13 1]

Greg is touring with the documentary/doing a book signing. Going to meet him next month. LITERALLY more excited about this than any band that I've seen in the last 2 years

[alkaline_13 1]

Oh crraaaaap! Since I found out about this ^ I got to interview Greg! It's here if you wanna check it out http://www.gooddaysandcliches.com/2013/11/greg-sestero-aka-mark-from-room.html

[RyanSz 3140]

Disaster Artist is an AMAZING book, though it shows Tommy as a psychotic asshole and really makes the rumor of the movie being a money laundering scheme that much more plausible. I really want to see a director's cut of this movie that has the full 6 minute first sex scene and where Tommy drives a car off of the roof somehow and proves that the character is a vampire. Buy this book you guys and what's funny is that Paul is mentioned in the special thanks section of the book, but not June or Jason.

[neilt0 0]

Fans of The Room may enjoy the podcast we did about it. We certainly had a lot of fun recording it!

 

 

RSS: http://feeds.feedbur...rscaleMovieClub

 

iTunes: https://itunes.apple...ast/id859477913

 

Direct download: http://goo.gl/PSVadR

 

http://media.blubrry.com/dfsmc/archive.org/download/DFSMC017TheRoomGuestsHuellHauserJovialJackeeJovialJohnAndToddBrisket/DFSMC%20017%20The%20Room%20%28Guests%20-%20HuellHauser%2C%20JovialJackee%2C%20JovialJohn%20and%20Todd%20Brisket%29.mp3

 

Podcast discussion: http://dimeforscale....=824011#p824011

 

Cheers!

 

Neil.

[Spinoza 3]

Geez guys, you think you coulda let Greg talk at all??

 

I tend to agree with this. Though the episode might have benefited from a similar setup as what they did with Vanilla Ice, first discussing the movie without the person involved, and then ask the most burning questions and giving him time to talk. But it was frustrating to have the "expert" answer a lot of questions that Greg could easily have answered authoritatively.

 

So a few days I actually saw the Room, and I must say it completely lives up to its reputation. It is amazing. It is possibly the most revealing and yet mysterious piece of art that has ever been created, as it both creates a very revealing image of Tommy Wiseau, and yet opens up a whole lot more questions about him. I think what makes this movie stand apart from other classic bad movies like Troll 2, Plan 9 from outer Space or Manos: the Hands of Fate is that the cause of the movie's badness is very singular. It's really all Tommy. I read some criticism of other actors, but I don't agree with that. The writing is so mindbogglingly inconsistent, it's amazing that people managed to put any kind of emotion into their scenes at all. And in fact most people are acting the crap out of their parts, and often making them sort of make sense, even though the lines they read make zero sense. It's true that people jump from one emotion to another at the drop of a hat, but that's the fault of the script... and credit is due to the actors who actually go along with it. The editing is apparently not all that, but the camerawork, lighting and music are decent, and also the editing really isn't all that bad. Like the establishing shots, they're indeed a bit much but they do sort of work.

 

But, like I said the script is unbelievable. There's two scenes I wanted to highlight, which I think deserve more attention:

 

Johnny: Do you understand life? Do you?

Lisa *gets up, shaking her head*: Don't worry about it, everything will be alright.

Johnny: You drive me crazy

Lisa: Good night Johnny

Johnny: Don't worry about it. I still love you. Good night Lisa.

 

Already Wiseau has forgotten that Johnny is supposed to be angry... although I suppose there may be some attempt at showing her seductive powers in making him forget his anger. If that was the case it's really executed poorly though. But I seriously have no explanation for the next one:

 

 

Lisa: Cause I'm in love with Mark, not Johnny. And here I am, planning his party.

Claudette: It's not right Lisa. I still think you should marry Johnny. Now you can't live on love! You need financial security.

 

So Lisa feels like a hypocrite and Claudette tells her to be practical. Got it.

 

 

Lisa: But I'm not happy! He still thinks I'm gonna marry him next month. *derisively* He's a fool.

Claudette: You expect to be happy. I haven't been happy since I married my first husband! I didn't even want to marry your father.

Lisa: You never told me that!

Claudette: Well it's true. Oh, men are assholes, men and women use and abuse each other all the time, there's nothing wrong with it! Marriage has nothing to do with love.

Lisa: Johnny's ok, I suppose. Actually, I have him wrapped around my little finger.

 

OK, so Lisa's becoming convinced that her mother's cynical approach to marriage is appropriate. Which would fit with Peter's assessment that she's a "sociopath who can't love anyone". But then this line is next:

 

 

Lisa (suddenly exasperated): But I don't love him!

Claudette: Don't throw your life away just cause you don't love him, that's ridiculous!

 

Seriously, how can anyone blame the actresses for this scene appearing strange?

 

And indeed Wiseau's own acting skills are basically nonexistent. It's indeed obvious that the story he tells about how he met Lisa is autobiographical, because it is the only part in the whole movie where his emotions are suddenly 100% believable, instead of it being impossible to decipher which emotion he's even trying to convey.

[nonimal 5]

[AmandaNumbraOne 18]

I used my "free audio book from Audible" to download the Disaster Artist. I recommend the audiobook over the physical copy simply due to Greg Sestero's spot on Tommy Wiseau impression from beginning to end. Please listen to this eleven hour masterpiece. Sestero is the reason why this amazing pile of garbage was made.

[Merkin Muffley 24]

I'm half way through The Disaster Artist audiobook, it, and Greg Sestero's reading are amazing; very enjoyable!

[IRONicmerMAN 391]

Fun take on good old Tommy. I just saw this video parodying him and hypothesizing about if he were to direct Batman. The actor's voice is perfect. Maybe he should have been cast to play Tommy in The Masterpiece instead of James Franco.