The fantastically self-serious success of 'The Room'
Tommy Wiseau, with football, in The Room.
5:12 pm Feb. 4, 20121
What is The Room? That’s the question you’re probably asking yourself if you've become ambiently aware of Tommy Wiseau’s baffling hit film but haven't done yourself the favor of seeing it yet.
Since its limited initial 2003 release in Los Angeles, Wiseau’s hilariously inept melodrama has developed a reputation as one of the worst movies of all time. Cartoon Network has made an annual tradition of screening The Room at midnight as an April Fool’s Day prank. And now The Room screens at midnight in New York City with startling regularity at the Ziegfeld, Landmark Sunshine, and this weekend at the IFC Center.
The Room is a toxic drama about a love triangle in which the only blameless victim is Johnny, Wiseau’s own vapid and inexplicably accented protagonist. Though he has publicly protested to the contrary, Wiseau, a neophyte writer/director/editor/star, has tried to spin The Room as many things, including a “black comedy.” But in reality, The Room is risible because of Wiseau’s tin ear for human sentiment.
But the myriad mysteries behind the production of The Room are just as much part of the film’s rise to cult status as its general heinousness. For instance, why are some rooftop scenes shot with a green screen? Why does Wiseau’s character constantly introduce himself to characters, including a little dog, by saying, “Oh, hi, ___?” Why is touch football used as shorthand code for male bonding? Why did Wiseau dub in all of Johnny’s dialogue during post-production? Better yet, why did he fail to properly syncopate his post-dubbed dialogue with his lip movements? And why are The Room’s sex scenes so long, so frequent and so damn unsexy?
Here’s what we know: Tommy Wiseau made a film called The Room. How he funded this film is unclear. (He told Entertainment Weekly that he sold a lot of Korean jackets? I guess?) But originally, The Room was a play that never got staged. So Wiseau then turned it into a 500-page book, which was never published. So he then turned The Room into a screenplay and decided to film it. Then, because he didn’t consult with anyone who’s ever made a film before buying his equipment, Wiseau bought two different kinds of cameras, one 35mm and one digital. And because he wasn’t sure which camera he should use, he filmed The Room with both cameras—simultaneously.
After casting his film from a potential pool of what he claims to have been thousands of actors’ headshots, Wiseau began a six-month shoot that required several of the film’s cast members to wear multiple creative hats. For example, Wiseau’s friend and The Room star Greg Sestero was a line producer and was also a personal assistant to Tommy during the film’s shoot. Sestero also later interviewed Wiseau for a DVD extra in which the director is seated in front of a stately fireplace. Wiseau’s dialogue during this interview was also post-dubbed into the sequence after the interview was shot.
But what’s The Room about? Set in the Bay area of San Francisco, the film follows three friends: Johnny (Wiseau), a hapless banker; Mark (Sestero), his best friend; and Lisa (Juliette Danielle), Johnny’s fiancé. Lisa gets bored with Johnny and develops feelings for Mark. Mark reciprocates these feelings. But for some reason that’s not enough reason for Lisa, a woman who Wiseau designs to be totally selfish and conniving, to leave Johnny. Lisa is Wiseau’s paranoiac projection of self-interested, feminine wiles run amok: she doesn’t have a job and does nothing but spend money that Johnny gives her. She doesn’t leave Johnny because she can’t support herself with, uh, a job.
When push comes to shove, Lisa gets Johnny, a guy who doesn’t drink, to get plastered. She then lies to everyone and claims that Johnny hit her in a drunken fit after not getting a much-anticipated promotion. And throughout all of this, Mark’s just a cipher. He doesn’t do much because he doesn’t want to hurt either Lisa or Johnny.
Which leads to Johnny shooting himself in the mouth after wailing about being “fed up with this world.” His corpse is splayed-out in a Christ-like pose, arms out-stretched around a halo of blood.
Wiseau seems to enjoy doing publicity for his film, having shown up to numerous midnight movie engagements. But he’s also cultivated the aura of a brittle, misunderstood auteur. For example, he paid for a single billboard poster for The Room that features a garish close-up of Wiseau, who is clearly in the middle of blinking. That billboard was prominently displayed in Hollywood for four years. When asked why he spent all that money on the billboard, Wiseau defensively told the LAist: “Well, we like the location, and we like the billboard. So we feel that people should see The Room. That’s why we put the billboard there. If we didn’t have that billboard, you would not ask that question. Right?”
It’s also a telling sign of Wiseau’s apparently real-life hubris that almost all of the press clips that are linked to at The Room’s official website are either favorable or hint at thematic depth that the film simply does not have. For instance, USA Today’s review of the film begins by complaining, “This movie is a collection of stereotypical characters.” But the review also ends by suggesting that, “With whom you identify with may reveal your psyche.” Whereas, really, it’s most revealing about the fascinating psyche of Wiseau himself.
And yet, that’s kind of why The Room is great. Thanks to its ever-increasing cult, Wiseau’s become an eccentric cult figure whose next project is actually hotly anticipated. He’s talked about making a new movie, starting his own line of clothing (with his face on it, even!) and post-converting The Room into a 3D experience. I don’t know how many Korean jackets Wiseau will need to sell to make a 3D The Room happen but I hope he meets his quota. Think of it: Wiseau’s sinewy arm reaching out and literally grabbing viewers while Johnny chirrups, “Oh, hi, Mark.” What could be better?
CORRECTION: The original referred throughout to the "Lisa" character as "Michelle," who is a different character.
Uhhhhh, Simon, Johnny's "future wife" is Lisa (Juliette Danielle), not Michelle. Michelle is the woman who enters unannounced about a third of the way into the movie for the "chocolate is the symbol of love" scene.