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A review by abigail_lo
The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made by Tom Bissell, Greg Sestero
5.0
4.5 stars
If I were rating based purely off of technical writing skills, this book should probably be a 3.5 or a 4 at best. Some of the jumps between timelines were a little choppy for me, and it's pretty far from the best nonfiction I've ever read. But, like, it's a book about The Room. How can I not love a book that's about fucking Tommy Wiseau? I've always been obsessed with things that are so bad they're good, and The Room is the movie to beat all bad movies. I don't even remember life when I wasn't completely enthralled by it. God, what a movie. Disaster Artist was also a surprisingly insightful look into (what I would call) toxic friendships and why people stay in them, despite everything. Some of the shit Wiseau does to Sestero is truly despicable -- I kind of think Wiseau has NPD, but that's probably because I'm now obsessed with NPD through r/raisedbynarcissists, and I've been diagnosing everyone with NPD for the past week. Seriously: I should probably stop.
Side note: there's footage from the making of The Room on YouTube! This is probably an even more important find than the "this isn't a beach, it's a bathtub!" scene. Which, by the way: truly Oscar-worthy performance. I really love shitty movies. Also, according to Wikipedia, Wiseau would have been in his late 40's when he made the movie, so he definitely wasn't late 20's or whatever age he said he was. But everyone who's watched the movie probably already knew that.
tl;dr: The making of The Room is almost as batshit insane as the movie itself. Watch it, and then read Disaster Artist -- but have the movie on demand to re-watch the moments Sestero talks about. Also, I will attend an audience screening of The Room, even if I have to quarantine for 14 days afterward. Anything would be worth it to watch those incredible sex scenes on the big screen. What a fucking movie, y'all.
re-review (1/3/23): i decided that disaster artist was gonna be my first read of 2023, and i was very right for that decision. there's nothing that fills me with pain and longing and hope quite like watching tommy try to make his way through the world as an actor (and becoming kind of an asshole in the process). i did watch an audience screening of the room -- i even got an autographed DVD copy & a picture with tommy, so i'm glad i was able to fulfill one of my dreams (as little as it was).
If I were rating based purely off of technical writing skills, this book should probably be a 3.5 or a 4 at best. Some of the jumps between timelines were a little choppy for me, and it's pretty far from the best nonfiction I've ever read. But, like, it's a book about The Room. How can I not love a book that's about fucking Tommy Wiseau? I've always been obsessed with things that are so bad they're good, and The Room is the movie to beat all bad movies. I don't even remember life when I wasn't completely enthralled by it. God, what a movie. Disaster Artist was also a surprisingly insightful look into (what I would call) toxic friendships and why people stay in them, despite everything. Some of the shit Wiseau does to Sestero is truly despicable -- I kind of think Wiseau has NPD, but that's probably because I'm now obsessed with NPD through r/raisedbynarcissists, and I've been diagnosing everyone with NPD for the past week. Seriously: I should probably stop.
Side note: there's footage from the making of The Room on YouTube! This is probably an even more important find than the "this isn't a beach, it's a bathtub!" scene. Which, by the way: truly Oscar-worthy performance. I really love shitty movies. Also, according to Wikipedia, Wiseau would have been in his late 40's when he made the movie, so he definitely wasn't late 20's or whatever age he said he was. But everyone who's watched the movie probably already knew that.
tl;dr: The making of The Room is almost as batshit insane as the movie itself. Watch it, and then read Disaster Artist -- but have the movie on demand to re-watch the moments Sestero talks about. Also, I will attend an audience screening of The Room, even if I have to quarantine for 14 days afterward. Anything would be worth it to watch those incredible sex scenes on the big screen. What a fucking movie, y'all.
re-review (1/3/23): i decided that disaster artist was gonna be my first read of 2023, and i was very right for that decision. there's nothing that fills me with pain and longing and hope quite like watching tommy try to make his way through the world as an actor (and becoming kind of an asshole in the process). i did watch an audience screening of the room -- i even got an autographed DVD copy & a picture with tommy, so i'm glad i was able to fulfill one of my dreams (as little as it was).