"The Room" Is So Bad It's...

In 2003, a movie came out made on a $6 million budget and grossed about $1,900. It was so badly hated that the movie theatre running the film posted a large sign reading “NO REFUNDS” in its window. It was described as an experience similar to being “stabbed in the head” and “…the Citizen Kane of bad movies. So brutally hated by its own production team that there were several on set changes to personnel, including actors leaving mid production and replacements of professionals to student workers.

And then…

Michael Rousselet, a member of the famous film group 5-Second Films, happened to catch one of the last screenings and saw a lot of great unintentional humor in the film. He quickly called his buddies to come and join him in their own private screenings, seeing as the rest of the theatre was completely empty. They loved the film so much that they hit the streets, using a word of mouth campaign to get a hundred people to the final screening of the movie, them seeing it 4 times in 3 days, and becoming the first cult followers of this. 

Immediately after the screenings, the new following of the movie emailed writer/director/star/producer to tell him how much they enjoyed the film. Tommy was so encouraged by the new found fans of his film that he booked a single midnight screening in June of 2004. That screening was so successful that he booked a second show, and a third, eventually booking two screens, and then multiple theaters around LA. Celebrities like David Cross, Paul Rudd, and Patton Oswalt all attend at some point. Today, The Room is so loved by fans that it sells out monthly screenings constantly in cities all over the United States. One of its actors, Greg Sestero, has gone on to write a wonderful book about his experiences in the film, a book lovingly titled “The Disaster Artist”, revealing the madness behind the films creator and the even higher level of madness from the many fans of the film, this guy included. 

But what is it about The Room? Why is this movie so wonderful, so watchable, so hilariously zany from poor quality? 

The Room is a bizarre movie. Bizarre is really the only way to describe it. It’s not necessarily funny, even. It’s just strange. There are tons of lines that don’t make a lick of sense, there’s a lot of prolonged sex scenes that leave you uncomfortably restless in your chair, there are characters that appear out of nowhere and then vanish into nothingness, only to be replaced by equally bizarre characters, there are plot points that pop up and never come back again. There’s terrible music that’s played with equally terrible panning shots of pretty much nothing.

But what’s notable is the audiences embracing of every aspect of film making. So many bad movies are called bad by awful dialogue and bad acting - bad music and poor camera work (shaky cam aside) are usually forgotten. This movie is criticized for everything, and made fun of for everything. Audience members are heard screaming “Focus!!!” during the fuzzy shots, can be heard singing along with “you are my rose” during one of the absurdly long sex scenes. They address the problems in filmmaking as well as writing, which is something you typically don’t experience in any movie. 

Then there’s the obvious hilarity in the disgracefully awkward dialogue. “You are tearing me apart Lisa!” being the most famous, but my favorites including such gems as “ahaha what a story Mark,” “don’t touch me you stupid mother fucker,” “no I cannot. Anyway, how is your sex life?” Lines that just jump out at you for every wrong reason, being bizarre and uncomfortable. It’s a strange formula that somehow works. It really leaves you wondering if Tommy Wiseau knew exactly what he was doing…

And in the creepiest way, he did. Tommy Wiseau really did think he was making the greatest movie ever made, shown for the first time in the unbelievable book “The Disaster Artist” by the actor who portrayed Mark, Greg Sestero. I had a wonderful opportunity to sit down and talk with Sestero, who confirmed that Wiseau genuinely believed himself to be the next Marlon Brando, that he saw himself far above every other hollywood filmmaker. He loved what he was doing, and only changed the genre of his movie to “black comedy” after hearing his audiences laughing hysterically. But even at his accidental creation of a comedy, one has to wonder just how much he really doesn’t know about the quality of his film. He has to know it’s hated, right? 

I had so much fun the first time I watched The Room with my friends. We loved every second of the awful film. Enough so to play the horrifically dangerous drinking game two or three times. Then last summer I went for the first time to see a midnight showing in New York City and had the time of my freakin life. It involved another man’s belly button. Let’s just leave it at that. But it’s clear that this movie has enough to offer another viewing. Or ten. Seriously, people go nuts for this movie and love every second of their insanity. Did I mention the dude’s belly button? It’s kind of a great story. 

The Room is So Bad It’s Good. It has such an honest awkwardness, such a genuine sense of heart that just completely falls on its face. It tries so hard to work with dialogue and characters that simply cannot ever work under any circumstance, which puts an enormous smile on anyones face. It’s actually kind of a masterpiece of bad movie making. Hence, the “Citizen Kane of bad movies” comment.