imperfection is perfection
Sporadic film reviews by a wanna-be filmmaker
THE ROOM [2003]
How to describe a film such as this? A film where, to this day, midnight screenings are held in which we are free to drink as much as possible while hollering dialogue at the screen and/or groaning during sex scenes? Free to laugh like hyenas in mating season while hurling plastic spoons – provided by the friendly staff – at the screen till our arms are shot?
Well, it is hard. Admittedly it took a second viewing for me to fully understand why, but the hilarity of this movie is objective. If you can’t laugh, then I’m afraid I’ll have to sound like the film snob that, I’m ashamed to admit, I truly am: it is going over your head I’m afraid. Sorry ’bout that. For those not missing out, nothing rivals it, and I bet you know it.
There is a reason that a terrible movie is still being spoken about – having a film dedicated to the making of – nearly fifteen years since its release. It is a ‘mindfuck’ film of a very different variety, as the way it messes with you is very subtle. But it is a movie that somehow sticks in your head, despite having no redeeming values whatsoever as a ‘normal’ film. Or indeed a good one. Suddenly you want to see it again, with as many people as possible. But why?
Somehow Tommy Wisaeu’s borderline-insane approach towards making the movie – spending over six million dollars on an independent film that could have been made on a 20th of that budget – has resulted in a surreal, memorable experience that should not be memorable. There is a bizarre disconnect due to the horrid acting, direction, dialogue; it all seems so inhuman yet set within a bargain basement human plot about a love triangle. Adding to the strange feeling this film emanates is the fact Tommy, inexplicably, decided to shoot it both in digital and on film. At great expense of course. He also built sets that near locations closely resembled, resulting in some odd looking backdrops.
The film itself is obviously awful, but has stood the best of time due to how much comedy arises from it all. The soap opera worthy dialogue, all those memorable lines that Tommy utters in such a bizarrely bad way. The sex scenes that just go on and on with the funniest, cheesy music to accompany them. The truly unexplained, abnormal scenes, involving the funniest delivery of news about cancer ever recorded, not to mention the fact that when the characters play football, they never throw the ball more than five feet.
And just think, poor Tommy wanted this to be his masterpiece, one to rival the work of Tennessee Williams. But given his film will stand the test of time, despite how bad it really is, it is hard to feel sorry for the guy.
Required viewing. Simultaneously worth a full sixer and only one pint. Truly unique.
9 Comments on “THE ROOM [2003]”
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imperfection is perfection 
Nice review. It’s so awful, it’s hard not to watch.
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I have read a few reviews about this one. I want to watch this drunk. I bet it’s a gas.
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its so great, its somehow worse than a soap because the dialogue is somehow worse than a soap and Tommy’s way of delivering lines is just downright hilarious
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OH and I just posted my second to last chapter!! On the home straight!….. for my first draft, ha! Will be nice though to finally put a nail in that coffin and have the story sorted. Then of course I’ll need to go back and re-re-re-edit, i mostly need to work on establishing characters as well as using more visual descriptions like you suggested a while ago… not heaps of them but enough to give a sense of what the place looked like so the reader can at least picture it in their mind’s eye. ATM there is little to none of this.
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I will be reading it this weekend. So happy for you!
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Thanks Cindy! I am writing the last chapter now. Have you heard of the writing technique of setting a timer for 45 mins, or an hour, and then start writing? Twisting it around to an hour somehow mentally prepares me to write. Sometimes writing scares me, especially with fiction, because I don’t know where it is going until I write it. The technique has a name, starts with a P.
The technique is amazing, the ticking of the timer also mentally helps you, the ticking makes me more focused as it feels like a deadline, which it is in a way. Then after the hour, you walk or exercise for 15-20 mins, then go again for 45 mins. Rinse and repeat. Since i started using this technique I have written so much. The chapter I posted was over 4,000 words and I wrote it all in once day, over three sessions of an hour. =D
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The midnight screening of The Room you talk about is on my bucket-list. The ultimate so-bad-its-good, unintentionally amusing cult movie. I’ve seen it once at home, the crap acting is entertaining to watch. That laugh Tommy Wiseau has, “ha ha” is too funny 🙂
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ha ha haaa =D midnight screenings are just too much fun!!
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