The Disaster Artist is based off of a book of the same name, written by Greg Sestero.  Sestero played Mark in the 2003 movie The Room, a film which has achieved a cult status among cinephiles. The Disaster Artist details the making of The Room and all of the trials and tribulations the cast and crew encountered during production. James Franco directed and starred as Tommy Wiseau along with his brother Dave Franco as Greg Sestero, and a cast almost completely made up of very recognizable faces in the acting industry. This can be good but is sometimes a detriment as it sometimes seems the punchlines of jokes are really just who is playing the character. It does however, show the love for the story this movie is based on.

The best part of this movie is undeniably Franco’s performance, as he seems to get Tommy Wiseau’s look and voice almost perfect and his obvious care for the story definitely elevates the performance. The rest of the major cast also gave a great performance, but while some actors felt very fitting to their role such as Seth Rogen as Sandy Schklair the script supervisor, others like Dave Franco as Greg Sestero or Zac Efron as Dan (Chris R.) seemed unfitting. One complaint would be the overall blandness of both the soundtrack and the cinematography. The soundtrack was really nothing special; there was just nothing impressive about it. The cinematography quality was somewhat expected. James Franco has directed movies before and it’s usually the same: a bunch of reverse shots and a lot of scenes shot in a hand held camera.

The way scenes from The Room were replicated was very impressive. The time and dedication that must have taken really payed off; however, one thing I wish they had recreated was the ridiculous over dubbing. The dubbing in The Room is one of the funniest parts and adding this would have really made those recreations better. It would have also given the opportunity for a potentially funny scene in which the actors are recording their lines. This movie has a stable amount of comedy and emotion that creates a great story that even people who haven’t seen The Room could very much enjoy. Overall rating for The Disaster Artist an 8.5 .