Maybe it’s empty because we’re early. Or maybe “The Room” really lives up to the critics’ harsh reviews.
I fidget. An overdressed man in a tuxedo turns the corner. It’s entirely obvious that the long, curly, black wig he wears under a large top hat is not his real hair. He lingers around the theater door. Now, there’s a whole whopping four people here to see this movie. We wait. One by one, more people join us in silence and wait for the ushers to let us in. Some girls wear red dresses, and guys wear the same tux as the first, minus the wig. I feel less like a fish out of water as the last group arrives. They wear normal clothes, except the last guy, who removes his leather jacket to reveal a red T-shirt. Speech bubbles with random exclamations and quotes cover the front.
Wow, people really are into this movie.
“The Room,” a movie, follows main characters Johnny, Lisa, Mark and Denny in a 99-minute storm of affairs, betrayal, accusations and trips around San Francisco. The film is written and directed by its star, Tommy Wiseau.
The dialogue makes me cringe. They speak with such melodrama, I can’t help but laugh. The scenes get more unrealistic every minute. Lisa, the lead female, has a conversation with her mother, Claudette. Claudette claims she was tested and diagnosed with breast cancer, and Lisa brushes it off completely, weaving an elaborate (but idiotic) lie about her supposedly abusive fiancé, Johnny. She cheats with Johnny’s best friend, Mark. Denny shows up and somehow almost gets murdered by a drug lord, and they all yell and cry and play football in tuxedos. A lot. The end leaves so many unanswered questions. “The Room” lacks structure, character development and overall purpose.
But I love every bit of it.
When it first premiered in 2003, “The Room” received a wave of negative reviews. Critics tore apart every aspect of the movie. They criticized the camera quality, the set, the over-dramatic acting and the continuity errors. It’s rated a strong 3 to 3.5 out of 10. The people who kept it from a 0 are the people like me, who said, “It’s so bad, it’s good.”
“The Room,” like “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” has attained cult status. The Rolling Stone article, “The 25 Best Cult Movies of All Time” (where “The Room” places 21st), says a movie can be a cult film once it has developed a “fiercely devoted audience that watches it over and over, preferably at midnight in a theater packed with other die-hards.” Cult films attract all kinds of people. Kristen Bell, an actress, admitted she loves the film. Some people like to dress up, some stick to callbacks, yelling at the screen at certain parts.
I’m the first to leave the theater. I watch the crowd exit as I wait for my siblings. Everyone’s attire makes sense now. The girls in the red dresses resemble the character, Lisa, the guys in suits dress for the wedding scene. The curly wig? The main character. The guy with the red shirt covered in speech bubbles wore some of the best quotes from the movie.
The movie shows more than enough establishing shots of San Francisco, prompting someone in the audience to yell, “Meanwhile, in San Francisco!” They joined in yelling the most operatic line, “You are tearing me apart, Lisa!” Later, Mark describes the room, but the room doesn’t fit his description at all. Everyone yells at the screen.
“The candles…”
“What candles?”
“The music…”
“What music?”
“The sexy dress…”
“What sexy dress?”
Everyone becomes the biggest fan and the biggest critic at the same time.
Though its bad reviews make it more enjoyable, Tommy Wiseau, the writer/director/star, takes criticism quite personally. He recently did a Reddit Q&A, talking about the feedback from reviewers.
“We had [rehearsal]. I encourage [people] to actually think about twice before re-writing, bashing actors, because all the actors did a very good job. In the media, they said they didn’t know what they were doing, but we had regular rehearsal, six months before, so everything was done very professionally, and [actors] did [a] very good job.” Wiseau has mentioned many times that he is proud of the film, despite people calling him out on holes and errors. Greg Sestero, who played Mark, explained his experience with Wiseau and “The Room” in his book, “The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside ‘The Room,’ the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made.” Sestero called “The Room” “a drama that is also a comedy that is also an existential cry for help that is finally a testament to human endurance.” He mentioned some encounters he had while filming.
“In the love scene’s final shot, Johnny gets out of bed and walks bare naked to the bathroom. Tommy thought long and hard about his decision to show his ass. ‘I need to do it,” he told me. “I have to show my body or this movie won’t sell.’”
The rest of the cast also finds humor in the reputation of “The Room.” Juliette Daniels, who played Lisa, joined Philip Haldiman (Denny) and the rest of the cast (minus Wiseau and Sestero) in a mockumentary called “The Room Actors: Where Are They Now?” about how (or if) the cast has changed at all since 2003. It will premiere in 2016. Like every “so bad it’s good” movie, the people who contributed to it still get a lot of hate and insults from people who can’t lighten up and have some fun. Daniels, on her Facebook page, proudly states that she is done hiding from the film.
“Quote the film all you want… I love my Roomies.”
So, if you ever love a terrible movie, even if it gets a 0/10 in every review, makes little money, and everyone you know hates it—embrace it. There’s someone out there who, for some still unknown reason, loves it too, as well as viewing parties, merchandise and so many Halloween costume opportunities. Who knows? Something bigger could come from it. James Franco took advantage of one of the opportunities. He is currently directing “The Disaster Artist,” a “behind-the-scenes” look at “The Room,” based off Sestero’s book. Tommy Wiseau told Reddit, Twitter and all other social media about his involvement in the film.
Even an A-list actor takes advantage of a bad reputation.
Maggie Estrada is a sophomore at CASA.
