The Room

The Room
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Tommy Wiseau
Written by	Tommy Wiseau
Produced by	Tommy Wiseau
Starring	Tommy Wiseau Juliette Danielle Greg Sestero Philip Haldiman Kyle Vogt Carolyn Minnott Robyn Paris
Cinematography	Todd Barron
Edited by	Eric Chase
Music by	Mladen Milicevic
Distributed by	Wiseau-Films
Release dates	June 27, 2003 (LA) February 19, 2005
Running time	99 minutes
Country	Template:FilmUS
Language	English
Budget	US$6 million

The Room is a 2003 black comedy 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, Kyle Vogt, Carolyn Minnott, and Robyn Paris. The Room tells the melodramatic story of a love triangle between a man, his future wife, and his best friend.

Without any studio support, Wiseau spent over US$6 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 a cast member has anonymously disputed these claims and many audience members generally view the film as a poorly made drama.

The Room has been cited by some critics as one of the worst films ever made, and has been called "the Citizen Kane of bad movies." 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, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Denmark.

Plot

The Room is the story of a love triangle between Johnny (Tommy Wiseau), his fiancee Lisa (Juliette Danielle), and his best friend Mark (Greg 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, meanwhile, having come to the realization that she "wants it all," decides to stay 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 alternates between glorifying and vilifying Johnny to her family and friends, both making false accusations of domestic abuse and defending Johnny against criticisms.

The film has several subplots involving secondary characters, which make up a significant portion of the film. Denny (Phillip Haldiman), a neighboring college student whom Johnny supports and loves like a son, has a mysterious run-in with a drug dealer and struggles with an attraction to Lisa. Claudette mentions real estate problems, failed relationships, and that she has breast cancer. Michelle's boyfriend, Mike (Mike Holmes), is shamed by Lisa and Claudette walking in on him with Michelle in Johnny's and Lisa's living room. Peter (Kyle Vogt), a psychologist friend of Johnny's and Mark's, initially expresses shock at Lisa's infidelity only to assess her as a sociopath the next day, prompting Mark to try and throw him off of a roof. Johnny takes on a mysterious client at the bank whose identity he is sworn to protect. All of these subplots receive only brief exposition, and none are ever resolved.

At Johnny's surprise party, Steven, a previously unseen friend of Lisa's and Johnny's, catches Lisa kissing Mark while the rest of the guests are outside. Johnny announces to the guests that Lisa is pregnant, but then Lisa tells Steven and Michelle that she lied about her pregnancy. At the end of the evening, Lisa flaunts her affair in front of Johnny, and Johnny and Mark get into two altercations. After the party, Johnny locks himself in the bathroom, prompting Lisa to make plans to finally leave him for Mark. Johnny finally comes out of the bathroom and retrieves a cassette he secretly attached to Lisa's phone, and listens to an intimate call between Lisa and Mark. Claiming that all of his friends have betrayed him, Johnny destroys his apartment and then kills himself with a handgun. Denny, Mark, and Lisa discover his body sometime later, and Mark and Denny blame Lisa for Johnny's death, with Mark declaring he doesn't love Lisa. Denny asks to be left alone with the body, but Lisa and Mark instead decide to stay and comfort one another as the sound of sirens grows louder.

Cast

• Tommy Wiseau as Johnny
• Juliette Danielle as Lisa Template:Nb10Template:Nb10
• 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, completed by Tommy Wiseau in 2001. 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. He eventually amassed $6 million, all of which was spent on production and marketing. Wiseau has claimed that the reason the film was relatively expensive was because many members of the cast and crew had to be replaced, and each of the cast members had several understudies.

According to Greg Ellery, the actor who portrayed Steven, Wiseau came to the Birns and Sawyer film lot, rented a studio, and bought a "complete Beginning Director package," which included the purchase of a brand new film camera. " 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.

Dialogue

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 even more irrelevant information. The script was heavily edited on set by the script supervisor and the actors. 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."

Casting

Wiseau has claimed in many interviews that while casting the film, he selected his group of actors from amongst "thousands" of head shots, yet nearly the entire cast of The Room had never before been in a full-length film.

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; 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". 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.

The Room was the first film in which Carolyn Minnott had ever appeared.

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

Filming

Principal photography lasted six 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, producer, and director. Wiseau had a number of problems with his behind-the-camera team, and replaced the entire crew twice. 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.

Directorial credit dispute

In a February 14, 2011 Entertainment Weekly article, veteran script supervisor Sandy Schklair announced that he now desires credit for directing The Room. Schklair told EW shortly after being hired on as script supervisor, Wiseau became too engrossed with his acting duties to properly direct the film; Schklair claims that Wiseau then asked him to "tell the actors what to do, and yell 'Action' and 'Cut' and tell the cameraman what shots to get." The script supervisor also claims to have had a conversation with Wiseau in which he refused to give up the title of "Director", but asked Schklair to "direct [his] movie." The story is corroborated by at least one of the film's actors, who requested anonymity for the story.

Wiseau has dismissed Schklair's claims: "I will never give this guy credit. He did not direct the movie. He was hired as a script supervisor. If he was my assistant, so be it. But direct? I don’t think so."

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was written by Loyola Marymount University music professor Mladen Milicevic, and also features four R&B slow jams, all of which are only used during the film's many love scenes. The songs are "I Will" by Jarah Gibson, "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.

Clint Gamboa would later become a contestant on American Idol during its 2011 season.

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 been noted by critics and audiences.

The Portland Mercury has pointed out that a number of "plot threads are introduced, then instantly abandoned". One of the most notable examples of this is in an early scene, when 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." The issue is casually dismissed and never revisited during the rest of the film. In addition, the audience never learns the details surrounding Denny's drug-related debt to Chris-R or what led to their violent confrontation on the roof.

At the same time, a number of seemingly minor situations are made overly dramatic. One such example is when Mark is revealed to have shaved his beard; the camera zooms in tightly on Mark's face while dramatic music plays, and some dialogue is dedicated to various characters commenting on it, after which the matter is quickly dropped and never referred to again. In perhaps the most infamous example, the principal male characters congregate in an alley behind Johnny's apartment to play catch with a football while wearing tuxedos. Although Denny mentions wedding photos, an earlier conversation states that the wedding is still a month away, and no explanation is ever given as to why the characters all arrived at the apartment wearing their wedding clothes. Wiseau received enough questions about the scene that he decided to address it on a Q&A segment featured on the DVD release; rather than explaining the scene, though, Wiseau only states that playing football without the proper protective equipment is fun and challenging.

The character of Denny has received a great deal of attention from fans for the contrast between his bizarre personality and lack of backstory. 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; in the film's opening moments, he jumps into bed with Johnny and Lisa, oblivious to the fact that they are about to have sex. 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." When asked if Denny was written that way, Wiseau says he did so "Indirectly, so he's confused."

Much has also been made of inconsistencies surrounding the operation of a cassette recorder that plays a role in the film's climax. After Johnny begins to distrust Lisa, he hooks the recorder to her telephone. After several days of apparent continuous recording, he retrieves a cassette tape, which, rewound, contains only a conversation between Lisa and Mark that occurred seconds before. When the conversation is replayed, lines are present on the recording that were not said during the actual conversation. Wiseau explained in an interview with LaIst: "You can buy a recorder that records 24/7, and the tape can rewind by itself.".

Critical reception

The film is cited as one of the worst films ever made. 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". IFC.com described Wiseau's speaking voice in the film as "Borat trying to do an impression of Christopher Walken playing a mental patient." The Guardian called the film a mix of "Tennessee Williams, Ed Wood and R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet".

The film currently holds an approval rating of 36% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 14 reviews.

Home media

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 first video rental service to carry The Room was GreenCine, followed by Netflix in 2009. The Room is notably absent from Blockbuster's list of available films. The Room has not been made available for digital download.

The DVD's special features include 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; 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.

Another bonus feature on the DVD is a more than half hour-long fly on the wall-style documentary about the making of The Room. The documentary includes no narration, very little dialogue, only one interview (with cast member Carolyn Minnot), and consists largely of clips of the crew preparing to shoot.

Other media

Video game

Main article: The Room (video game)

In September 2010, Newgrounds owner Tom Fulp released a Flash game tribute, in the form of a 16-bit styled adventure game played entirely from Johnny's point of view. The game's artwork was provided by staff member Jeff "JohnnyUtah" Bandilin, with music by animator Chris O'Neill.

Book

In May 2011, it was announced that Greg Sestero signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster to write a book based on his experiences making the film. Sestero will author the book along with Tom Bissell, who wrote a Harper’s Magazine piece on The Room in 2010. The book is set for publication in January 2013.

Play/Reading

On June 10, 2011, the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center presented a live play/reading based on the original script for the movie. Wiseau reprised his role of Johnny and was joined by Greg Sestero playing the role of Mark. The production incorporated improvised scenes, dialogue, and new characters, such as Travis, Claudette's neighbor and lover. On September 16 and 17, 2011, two additional performances of the "The Room: Live" were presented. Most of the same cast reprised their roles. Travis was given a larger part, singing an original song titled "You Are Tearing Me Apart," and a new character, Scott, Denny's friend (originated by Stephen Hock), was added. Wiseau stated that all of the new scenes are canon to The Room mythology.

In popular culture

• The film continues to be shown once a month at the Laemmle Sunset 5 Theater in Hollywood. 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, typically at midnight showings, throughout the United States, Canada, Scandinavia, The United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
• Adult Swim has run the movie several times since 2009 as part of their April Fool's Day programming.
• 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.
• 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. 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.

External links

• Official website
• The Room at IMDb
• The Room at Rotten Tomatoes