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The Room

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The Room
Directed byTommy Wiseau
Written byTommy Wiseau
Produced byTommy Wiseau
StarringTommy Wiseau
Juliette Danielle
Greg Sestero
Philip Haldiman
Carolyn Minnott
Robyn Paris
CinematographyTodd Barron
Edited byEric Chase
Music byMladen Milicevic
Distributed byWiseau-Films
Release dates
June 27, 2003 (LA)
February 19, 2005
Running time
99 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageTransclusion error: {{En}} is only for use in File namespace. Use {{langx|en}} or {{in lang|en}} instead.
Budget$6,000,000

The Room is a 2003 independent film written and directed by its main actor, Tommy Wiseau, who is also credited on screen as both the movie's producer and executive producer. The principal cast includes Wiseau, Juliette Danielle, Greg Sestero, Philip Haldiman, Carolyn Minnott, and Robyn Paris. The Room tells the melodramatic story of a love triangle between a man, his fiancée, and his best friend.

Without any studio support, Wiseau spent over $7 million on production and marketing for the film. Wiseau promotes the film as a black comedy and insists that its humor is actually intentional, although cast members have publicly disputed these claims[1] and many audience members generally view the film as a poorly made drama.[2][3]

The Room has been cited by some critics as one of the worst films ever made,[4][5] and has been called "the Citizen Kane of bad movies."[6][7] After a brief run in Los Angeles, the film went on to develop a cult following and continues to have midnight screenings around the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Plot

The Room is the story of a love triangle between a man named Johnny (Wiseau), his "future wife" Lisa (Danielle), and his best friend Mark (Sestero).

At the beginning of the film, Lisa has become inexplicably dissatisfied with Johnny, confiding to her best friend Michelle (Paris) and her mother Claudette (Minnott) that she finds him boring. Lisa seduces Mark, and they begin an affair that continues throughout the film, even as Mark more than once tries to break it off.

Lisa stays with Johnny because he is a successful banker who has promised to buy her a house. As the wedding date approaches and Johnny's clout at his bank slips, Lisa gets closer to leaving Johnny for Mark.

The film has several subplots involving secondary characters. A neighboring college student named Denny (Haldiman)—whom Johnny supports and loves like a son—has a mysterious run-in with a drug dealer and struggles with his attraction to Lisa; Claudette, Lisa's mother, deals with real estate problems, failed relationships, and breast cancer; Michelle's boyfriend Mike (Mike Holmes) is shamed by Lisa and Claudette walking in on him with Michelle in Johnny and Lisa's living room. All of these subplots are introduced and quickly forgotten, particularly Claudette's breast cancer, which is only mentioned once.

When Lisa throws Johnny a surprise birthday party, she flaunts her affair in front of Johnny, and Johnny and Mark get into two altercations. Johnny has also attached a tape recorder to the telephone, recording an intimate call between his future wife and Mark. Claiming that he doesn't have a friend in the world, Johnny locks himself in his bathroom until everyone has left. When he comes out, he destroys his apartment, finds a handgun and commits suicide with a gunshot in the mouth.

Lisa and Mark discover Johnny's corpse soon afterward, and Denny is not far behind. Mark blames Johnny's death on Lisa. Denny blames Johnny's death on Lisa and Mark, urging them to leave him alone with the corpse so he can say farewell, but as the film closes, Lisa and Mark remain with Denny as police sirens grow louder.[8]

Characters

  • Tommy Wiseau as Johnny
  • Juliette Danielle as Lisa
  • Greg Sestero as Mark
  • Phillip Haldiman as Denny
  • Carolyn Minnott as Claudette
  • Robyn Paris as Michelle
  • Mike Holmes as Mike
  • Dan Janjigian as Chris-R
  • Kyle Vogt as Peter
  • Greg Ellery as Steven

Production

The Room originated as a play and a novel completed by Tommy Wiseau in 2001.[6][9] He eventually decided to try to make a film out of the project. After failing to get his idea supported by the Hollywood system, he wrote the script himself and spent five years developing and fundraising the project independently until he could shoot it himself. Wiseau has been secretive about exactly how he obtained the funding for the project, but he did tell Entertainment Weekly that he made some of the money by importing leather jackets from Korea.[6] He eventually amassed $6 million, all of which was spent on production and marketing.[6]

According to Greg Ellery, the actor who portrayed Steven in The Room, Wiseau came to the Birns and Sawyer film lot, rented a studio, and bought a "complete Beginning Director package," which included the purchase of both a brand new film camera and a $30,000 digital camera intended for shooting the "making of."[10] Wiseau, confused about the differences between 35 mm film and high-definition video, decided to shoot the entire film in both formats with two cameras side-by-side on the same mount. This experiment allowed Wiseau to compare the formats on a large scale, and he plans to use the information that he gathered for a DVD documentary and a book.

Principal photography lasted eight months. It was mainly shot at a Los Angeles soundstage, but some second-unit shooting was done in San Francisco. The film employed over 400 people, and Wiseau is credited as an actor, an executive producer, the writer, the producer, and the director. Wiseau had a number of problems with his behind-the-camera team, and replaced the entire crew two times.[6] Some people had multiple jobs on the film; for example, in addition to playing the role of Mark, Greg Sestero also worked as a line producer, assistant to Tommy Wiseau, and helped with casting.[11]

Many lines of dialogue (especially those of Wiseau's) in the film are dubbed, with the audio often not synching to the mouth movements onscreen. The original script was actually much longer than the shooting script and contained numerous wordy monologues and more irrelevant information.[6] The script was heavily edited on set by the script supervisor and the actors.[6] One anonymous cast member said that the script contained "stuff that was just unsayable. I know it's hard to imagine there was stuff that was worse. But there was."[6]

Cast

Wiseau has claimed in many interviews that while casting the film, he selected his group of actors from amongst "thousands" of head shots,[12] yet nearly the entire cast of The Room had never before been in a full-length film. Greg Sestero, a longtime friend of Wiseau,[13] agreed to play the role of Mark only 72 hours before filming began, later telling an interviewer that he had been shown "the script, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to act in it because I thought it was... I don't know... the love scenes..."[11]

Greg Ellery has claimed that Juliette Danielle, the actress who portrayed Lisa, was 18 years old and just "off the bus from Texas" when shooting began;[10] Ellery also claims that on the first day of shooting, "the cast watched in horror" as Wiseau jumped on Danielle and immediately began filming their "love scene".[10] Wiseau has claimed that Danielle was originally one of three or four understudies for the Lisa character, and was selected after the original actress left the production.[14] The Room was the first film Carolyn Minnott had ever been in.[15]

Kyle Vogt, who played Peter, quit the film halfway through the shoot.[10][11] His lines in the last half of the film were given to Greg Ellery,[11] whose character is never introduced, explained, or addressed by name.[10] Ellery's character is listed in the credits as "Steven".[10]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack also features four R&B slow jams, all of which are only used during the film's love scenes. The songs are "I Will" and "Crazy" by Clint Gamboa, "Baby You and Me" by Clint Gamboa with Bell Johnson, and "You're My Rose" by Kitra Williams & Reflection. "You're My Rose" is also reprised during the end credits. The soundtrack was released by Wiseau's TPW Records on July 27, 2003.[16]

Errors, plot holes and inconsistencies

While the film is rife with continuity errors and several other minor cinematic drawbacks, there are several plots, subplots and character details whose inconsistencies have often been pointed out by critics and audiences. The Portland Mercury has pointed out that a number of "plot threads are introduced, then instantly abandoned".[17]

In an early scene, halfway through a conversation about planning a birthday party for Johnny, Claudette off-handedly tells Lisa: "I got the results of the test back. I definitely have breast cancer."[14] The issue is casually dismissed and never revisited during the rest of the film.[14][17]

Though he is apparently in college, it is never quite clear if Denny is a fully functioning adult, mainly due to his ignorance of social norms.[17] When asked about Philip Haldiman's portrayal of Denny, Wiseau stated: "I think he brought a lot stuff. One thing was he's really retarded a little bit." Asked if Denny was written that way, Wiseau says he did so "Indirectly, so he's confused."[14] Denny jumps into the bed with Johnny and Lisa at the beginning of the movie, prompting Johnny to kick him out by saying, "Two is great, but three's a crowd." In addition, details are never given about what drugs Denny bought from Chris-R after their violent confrontation on the roof, nor are any other details provided regarding Denny's drug-related debt.[17][18]

After the character of Peter inexplicably disappears about half way through the film, near the last 20 minutes, a new nameless character (although listed in the ending credits as "Steven") appears and interacts with the characters as if he's been involved with them throughout the film.[10]

After Johnny begins to distrust Lisa, he hooks up a cassette recorder to a telephone. Several days later he retrieves a cassette tape, only to have had it record the very last phone call between Lisa and Mark (though, when played back, the cassette tape is not actually moving while the sound plays and new dialogue is added to the recorded conversation when played back). Wiseau explained in an interview with LaIst: "You can buy a recorder that records 24/7, and the tape can rewind by itself."[9]

Theatrical and DVD release

In December 2005, The Room was released on DVD. It is only available for rental at select video rental shops via direct distribution from Wiseau Films. The film is not currently carried by Blockbuster, but is carried by GreenCine and was released on Netflix on October 27, 2009. The DVD features an interview with Wiseau, who is asked questions by an off-screen Greg Sestero. Wiseau sits directly in front of a fireplace, with a mantel cluttered by a candelabra, a football, a basketball, red roses, and a clock radio;[19] next to him sits a large framed theatrical poster for the film. His dialogue throughout the interview, like in the film, is heavily dubbed. Among the outtakes included on the DVD is an alternate version of the Chris-R scene, set in a back alley; instead of tossing a football, Denny is playing basketball, and attempts to get the drug dealer to "shoot some H-O-R-S-E" with him to distract him from the debt.

Wiseau has stated that another edition of the DVD will be released at some point, and will include a number of deleted scenes, including when Chris-R is taken to the police station.[12] He also hopes to release a Blu-ray version at some point.[12]

Critical reception and cult following

Leading up to the release of The Room, Wiseau began a promotional blitz in print and television, comparing The Room to works by Tennessee Williams.[1] He also offered a free CD of the soundtrack to ticket-buyers.[1] The Room premiered at a Laemmle Theatre in Los Angeles on June 27, 2003, where Wiseau had rented limos and red carpet for the occasion.[10] According to cast members, people in the theater began laughing at the film within the first ten minutes, and by the end, some of the crowd were "rolling around" and "crying with laughter".[1][10] The film made less than $2,000 during its initial theatrical run.[1]

Variety, one of the few publications to print a review of The Room during its original release, reported it was "a self-distributed directorial debut so hopelessly amateurish that auds reportedly walked out during its two-week run in July 2003".[20] IFC.com described Wiseau's speaking voice in the film as "Borat trying to do an impression of Christopher Walken playing a mental patient."[19] The Guardian called the film a mix of "Tennessee Williams, Ed Wood and R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet".[21]

After the film's initial run, Wiseau claims to have received "almost one hundred e-mails" thanking him for creating the film.[1] The praise encouraged him to continue showing the film once a month at the Laemmle Sunset 5 Theater in Hollywood. Over time, the movie has built up a cult following. Fans interact with the film in a similar fashion to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Audience members dress up as their favorite characters, throw plastic spoons at the movie screen (a reference to unexplained framed photos of cutlery often seen in the background), toss footballs to each other from short distances, and yell insulting comments and criticisms about the quality of the film. Since its release, the film has screened throughout the United States, Canada, The United Kingdom, and Australia.[22]

The film has a number of fans in the entertainment industry, including Eric Wareheim,[23] Frank Black[24] and Alec Baldwin.[25] The story of The Room's cult success has been covered by ABC World News with Charles Gibson,[25] NPR,[2] Fox News,[26] Entertainment Weekly,[6] the Austin Chronicle,[27] the Portland Mercury[17] and The Times.[3]

Wiseau attends many of the midnight screenings, selling t-shirts, DVDs, and film soundtracks to fans. Before the film begins, he engages the audience with a Q&A session. During the film, he encourages audience participation during screenings, and he claims that he does not get upset about the comments that audience members make. In an interview in The Room's DVD bonus features, Wiseau said, “I'm happy, because I prepared all this stuff, and I wanted people to have a good time [...] When you see The Room, you can yell, you can scream, you can express yourself — that's the idea." On the March 21, 2009 edition of Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld, Wiseau maintained that The Room was intended as a comedy with various meanings and symbolism.[26][28]

Wiseau's recent claims that the film was intended to be a black comedy have been debated by those involved with the film.[1] One anonymous cast member told Entertainment Weekly: "He is a nice guy. But he is full of shit. He was trying to put together a drama. It was basically his stage to show off his acting ability."[1]

In pop culture

On June 18, 2009, a RiffTrax for The Room was released, featuring commentary by Michael J. Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy, of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame.[29]

On his 2009 DVD My Weakness is Strong, comedian Patton Oswalt parodied The Room with a fake infomercial, playing a character named Alfan Golenpaul that mimicked Wiseau's odd accent and black stringy hair.[30] Golenpaul advises criminals to launder money in his movies with names like The Hallway, The Kitchen, etc., all of which are shown with the same shadowed font. Oswalt also doctored images of billboards advertising the faux-films, referencing The Room's well-known Hollywood billboard. The spoof also features a cameo from Jon Hamm.[30]

Wiseau plans on creating a video game and a childrens' cartoon show based on The Room.[31]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Entertainment Weekly article: "The Crazy Cult of 'The Room': A five-year-old box office flop has turned into the newest midnight movie sensation" - page 2.
  2. ^ a b Patel, Nihar (May 5, 2006). "'The Room': A Cult Hit So Bad, It's Good (audio)". National Public Radio.
  3. ^ a b Goodwin, Christopher (April 12, 2009). "Cult hit The Room is best worst film". The Times. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ "The Couch Surfer: 'It may be sublimely rubbish, but The Room makes audiences happy'". independent.co.uk. 2009-07-20. Retrieved 23 November 2009.
  5. ^ Collis, Clark (2008-12-30). "'The Room': Worst movie ever? Don't tell that to its suddenly in-demand star". popwatch.ew.com. Retrieved 23 November 2009.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Entertainment Weekly article: "The Crazy Cult of 'The Room': A five-year-old box office flop has turned into the newest midnight movie sensation" - page 1.
  7. ^ Harmanci, Reyhan (2009-04-29). "Why 'The Room' is popular cult film". sfgate.com. Retrieved 23 November 2009.
  8. ^ Motion Picture Purgatory: The Room
  9. ^ a b Shatkin, Elina (April 27, 2007). "LAist Interviews Tommy Wiseau, The Face Behind The Billboard". LAist. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i RiffTrax article: "RiffTrax interview with Greg Ellery"
  11. ^ a b c d The A.V. Club article: Interview: The Room's Greg Sestero, best friend extraordinaire."
  12. ^ a b c "nonTV Interview: Tommy Wiseau". nonTV.tumblr.com. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
  13. ^ Pasadena Weekly article: "'The Room' to improve".
  14. ^ a b c d The A.V. Club article: "Tommy Wiseau interview".
  15. ^ The Room DVD bonus features: The Making of The Room
  16. ^ Amazon.com entry for The Room: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.
  17. ^ a b c d e Portland Mercury article: "Tommy Wiseau: The Complete Interview(s)".
  18. ^ Tobias, Scott (March 26, 2009). "The Room". The A.V. Club. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  19. ^ a b IFC article: ""Everyone Betray Me!": A Primer on 'The Room'".
  20. ^ DeBruge, Peter (2006-04-06). "'Room' keeps the door open". variety.com. Retrieved 23 November 2009.
  21. ^ The Guardian article: "Is this the worst movie ever made?".
  22. ^ Theroommovie.com: Showings
  23. ^ Entertainment Weekly article: "The Crazy Cult of 'The Room': A five-year-old box office flop has turned into the newest midnight movie sensation" - page 3.
  24. ^ Magnet article: "Grand Duchy Cultural Position #3: Tommy Wiseau And The Room"
  25. ^ a b Videogum.com article: "ABC's Charlie Gibson Reports On The Room!"
  26. ^ a b Awfully Good FoxNews.com (March 21, 2009). Retrieved on 3-23-09.
  27. ^ Austin Chronicle article: "Making 'Room' in the Cult Canon".
  28. ^ Tommy Wiseau And Other Celebs To Appear At The NYC The Room Screening Tonight VideoGum.com (March 20, 2009). Retrieved on 3-23-09.
  29. ^ The Room - RiffTrax
  30. ^ a b Slashfilm.com article: "VOTD: Patton Oswalt Spoofs The Room"
  31. ^ Harper's article on The Room
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