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 date	June 27, 2003 (2003-06-27) (Los Angeles)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$6 million

The Room is a 2003 American independent romantic drama film starring Tommy Wiseau, who also wrote, directed, and produced the feature. In addition to Wiseau, the principal cast includes Juliette Danielle, Greg Sestero, Philip Haldiman, Kyle Vogt, Carolyn Minnott, and Robyn Paris. While the film is primarily centered on the melodramatic love triangle between an amiable banker (Wiseau), his fiance (Danielle), and his conflicted best friend (Sestero), a significant portion of the movie is dedicated to a series of unrelated subplots involving friends and family of the main characters.

The film has been dubbed "the Citizen Kane of bad movies" and one of the worst films ever made. Originally only shown in a limited number of California theaters, the film quickly developed a cult following as fans found humor in the film's bizarre storytelling and various technical and narrative flaws. Although Wiseau has retrospectively characterized the film as a black comedy, audiences have generally viewed it as a poorly made drama, a viewpoint supported by some of the film's cast. Within a decade of its premiere, the film was selling out showings around the United States and had inspired a video game, book, and traveling stage show.

Plot

Johnny is a successful banker who lives in a San Francisco townhouse with his fiancée, Lisa. They share an intense relationship characterized by constant, passionate lovemaking. Despite this idyllic existence, Lisa has inexplicably become dissatisfied with her life, and one afternoon confides to her best friend Michelle and her mother Claudette that she finds Johnny boring. Although Michelle advises her to be grateful for what she has, and her mother counsels her that financial stability is more important than happiness, Lisa decides to seduce Johnny's best friend, Mark. Although he is initially reluctant, Mark gives in to Lisa's advances. Their affair continues through the remainder of the film, even though Mark appears reluctant at the outset of each sexual encounter and repeatedly tries to break off the relationship. Lisa, meanwhile, having come to the realization that she "wants it all," decides to stay with Johnny for financial support and the material goods he can provide her. 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. Meanwhile, Johnny, having overheard Lisa confess her infidelity to her mother, attaches a tape recorder to their phone in an attempt to identify her lover.

Against the backdrop of Lisa and Mark's affair, numerous subplots involving secondary characters begin to develop: Denny, a neighboring college student whom Johnny financially supports and "loves like a son," has a mysterious run-in with a drug dealer named Chris-R, whom Johnny and Mark overpower and take to the police. Denny also lusts after Lisa, ultimately confessing his attraction to Johnny; once Johnny tells Denny that Lisa loves him as her friend, Denny resolves to propose to his own girlfriend. Johnny takes on a mysterious client at his bank whose identity he is sworn to protect. Claudette experiences real estate problems, bemoans failed relationships, and informs Lisa that she has breast cancer. Michelle and her boyfriend, Mike (Mike Holmes), sneak into Johnny and Lisa's home to have sex. Peter, a psychologist friend of Johnny's and Mark's, alternates between defending Lisa and assessing her as a sociopath, which results in Mark briefly trying to murder him. Each of these subplots receive little exposition, and none are ever resolved.

At a surprise birthday party for Johnny, Steven, a previously unseen friend of Lisa's and Johnny's, catches Lisa kissing Mark while the rest of the guests are outside and confronts her about the affair. Lisa expresses no remorse, while Mark angrily urges Steven not to tell anyone. Johnny announces to the guests that Lisa is pregnant, only for Lisa to tell Steven and Michelle that she lied about it in order to "make it interesting." At the end of the evening, Lisa flaunts her affair in front of Johnny, who physically attacks Mark.

After the party, Johnny locks himself in the bathroom, prompting Lisa to make plans to leave him for Mark. Johnny finally comes out of the bathroom and retrieves the cassette recorder he attached to the 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 pistol. Denny, Mark, and Lisa discover Johnny's body sometime later. 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.

Inconsistencies and narrative flaws

While the film is rife with continuity errors, 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.

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. When Mark arrives, he is revealed to have shaved his beard, and the camera slowly zooms in on his face while dramatic music plays on the soundtrack. Nothing that is said or occurs during the game has any impact on the plot; the scene ends abruptly with the men deciding to return to Johnny's apartment after Peter trips while trying to catch the ball. 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. Greg Sestero has been questioned about the significance of Mark's shaving, though his only response has been "if only you knew".

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, fans have questioned whether he is a fully functioning adult, due to his ignorance of social norms: In the film's opening minutes he jumps onto a bed with Johnny and Lisa, apparently unaware that they are about to have sex, and tells them, "I just like to watch you guys", seemingly oblivious to the sexual connotations of the statement.

Cast

• Tommy Wiseau as Johnny
• Greg Sestero as Mark
• Juliette Danielle as Lisa
• Philip Haldiman as Denny
• Carolyn Minnott as Claudette
• Robyn Paris as Michelle
• Scott 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. Wiseau then adapted the play into a 500-page book, which he was unable to get published. Frustrated, Wiseau decided to adapt the work into a film, which he would then produce himself in order to maintain total control over the project. 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, 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.

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. For example, The Room was the first film in which Carolyn Minnott had ever appeared. Greg Sestero, who had known Wiseau for some time before production began, had limited film experience and had only agreed to work with Wiseau as part of the production crew. On the first day of filming, Wiseau fired the actor originally hired to play Mark, and Sestero agreed to fill in. He would later admit to being uncomfortable filming his sex scenes; because of this, he was allowed to keep his jeans on while shooting them.

Greg Ellery has claimed that Juliette Danielle was just "off the bus from Texas" when shooting began, and 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. According to Danielle, the original actress cast to play Lisa was closer in age to Wiseau, who was in his late forties when filming began, and had an accent Danielle described as "random." Danielle further claims that she had originally been cast as Michelle, but was given the role of Lisa when the original actress was dismissed from the production because her "personality...didn't seem to fit" the character. Danielle further corroborates that multiple actors were dismissed from the production prior to filming, including another actress hired to play Michelle.

Kyle Vogt, who played Peter, told the production team at the outset of filming that he only had a limited amount of time to dedicate to the project. Not all of his scenes were filmed by the time his schedule ran out, and he left the production despite the fact that Peter was to play a pivotal role in the then-un-filmed climax. His lines in the last half of the film were given to Ellery, whose character is never introduced, explained, or addressed by name.

Script

I did not hit her, it's not true. It's bullshit. I did not hit her. I did not! Oh, hi Mark.

Tommy Wiseau as Johnny in "The Room"

The original script was significantly longer than the one used during filming, and featured a series of lengthy monologues; it was edited on-set by the cast and script-supervisor, who found much of the dialogue incomprehensible. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, one anonymous cast member claimed 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." Greg Sestero maintains that Wiseau was adamant characters say their lines the way they were written, but that several cast members managed to slip in ad libs that ended up in the final cut of the film. Wiseau overdubbed many of his own lines for unknown reasons, with the new dialogue not matching up to the movements of his character's mouth.

The script is characterized by numerous inexplicable mood and personality shifts in characters, particularly Johnny, Mark, and Lisa. In one scene, Johnny enters the rooftop in the middle of a tirade about being accused of domestic abuse, only to become abruptly cheerful upon seeing Mark; a few moments later, he laughs inappropriately upon learning that a friend of Mark's has been severely beaten. Similarly, while waiting for drinks at a coffee shop, Johnny - who does not yet suspect Mark of having an affair with Lisa - interrupts a conversation by asking Mark for details about his sex life, only to become angry and suspicious when Mark demurs. Johnny then becomes abruptly cheerful and their conversation continues as before.

In another instance, occurring a few scenes later, Mark attempts to kill Peter by throwing him off of a roof after Peter expresses his belief that Mark is having an affair with Lisa; just as Peter is about to fall to his death, Mark pulls Peter back over the edge of the roof, apologizes, and the two continue their previous conversation with no acknowledgement of what just occurred. Similarly, Lisa spends much of the early part of the film falsely accusing Johnny of getting drunk and assaulting her; though her friends and family are initially hesitant to believe her, they begin to take her claims seriously, at which point Lisa abruptly begins attempting to rehabilitate Johnny's image by recounting his financial support of Denny.

Much of the dialogue is repetitious, especially that of Johnny, whose speech is partially composed of a series of catchphrases: He begins almost every conversation in the film with the salutation, "Oh, hi!" and ends most conversations by saying "That's the idea." Similarly, many of the principal characters use the phrase "Don't worry about it" to dismissively end conversations. Almost every male character in the film has dialogue discussing Lisa's physical attractiveness, including an unnamed friend of Johnny's whose only line of dialogue in the film is "Lisa looks hot tonight." Additionally, despite the significant amount of dialogue regarding Johnny and Lisa's forthcoming wedding, no character ever uses the words "fiancé" or "fiancée", only referring to Johnny as Lisa's "future husband" or Lisa as Johnny's "future wife".

Filming

Principal photography lasted six months. It was mainly shot on a Los Angeles soundstage, but some second unit shooting was done in San Francisco. The film's many rooftop sequences were shot on the soundstage, with exteriors of San Francisco later greenscreened in. A behind the scenes feature reveals that some of the roof scenes were shot in August 2002. 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.

Soundtrack

The score was written by Loyola Marymount University music professor Mladen Milicevic. The soundtrack features four R&B slow jams, which play during four of the film's five love scenes (an oral sex scene between Michelle and Mike uses only instrumental music). The songs are "I Will" by Jarah Gibson, "Crazy" by Clint Gamboa, "Baby You and Me" by 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. Gamboa later appeared as a contestant on American Idol.

Promotion

The film was promoted almost exclusively through a single billboard in Hollywood, located on Highland Avenue just north of Fountain, featuring an image Wiseau refers to as "Evil Man": An extreme closeup of his own face with one eye in mid-blink. Although more conventional artwork was created for the film, featuring the main characters' faces emblazoned over the Golden Gate Bridge, Wiseau chose the "Evil Man" for what he regarded as its provocative quality; around the time of the film's release, the image led many passers-by to believe that The Room was a horror film. Wiseau also paid for a small television and print campaign in and around Los Angeles, with taglines calling The Room "a film with the passion of Tennessee Williams."

Despite the film's failure to enjoy immediate success, Wiseau paid to keep the billboard up for over four years, with its bizarre imagery and longevity leading to it becoming a minor tourist attraction. When asked how he managed to afford to keep the billboard up for so long in such a prominent location, Wiseau responded, "Well, we like the location, and we like the billboard. So we feel that people should see The Room. [...] we are selling DVDs, which are selling okay."

Directorial credit dispute

In a February 18, 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 direct the film properly; 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."

Reception

The Room premiered on June 27, 2003 at the Laemmle Fairfax and Fallbrook theaters in Los Angeles. Wiseau additionally arranged a screening for the cast and the press at one of the venues, renting a spotlight to sit in front of the theater and arriving in a limousine. Ticket buyers were given a free copy of the film's soundtrack on CD. Although Robyn Paris recalled the audience laughing at the film, Variety reporter Scott Foundas, who was also in attendance, would later write that the film prompted "most of its viewers to ask for their money back — before even 30 minutes [had] passed." 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, R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet".

The film currently holds an approval rating of 35% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Midnight circuit

The Room played in the Laemmle Fairfax and Fallbrook for the next two weeks, grossing a total of $1,800 before it was pulled from circulation. During one showing the second week of its run, the sole audience member in attendance was 5secondfilms' Michael Rousselet, who found unintentional humor in the film's poor dialogue and production values. After treating the screening as his "own private Mystery Science Theater", Rousselet began calling friends on his cell phone during the ending credits, encouraging them to come to the theater and join him in mocking the film for its next showing. After joining Rousselet, his friends began a word-of-mouth campaign that resulted in about 100 attending the film's final screening.

After the film was pulled from theaters, those who had attended the final showing began e-mailing Wiseau telling him how much they had enjoyed the film. Encouraged by the volume of letters he received, Wiseau arranged to book a single, midnight screening of The Room in June 2004. With the film having developed a word-of-mouth reputation as "the worst film ever made", the screening proved successful enough that Wiseau booked a second showing in July, which itself spawned a third showing in August. Demand for tickets soon rose to the point that Wiseau had to book the midnight showing on two screens before ultimately scheduling showings at multiple theaters around Los Angeles. Several celebrities became fans of the film, including Paul Rudd, David Cross, Will Arnett, Patton Oswalt, and Kristen Bell, and they began to promote the film to friends and co-stars. Bell and Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas were particularly aggressive in attempting to spread word of the film, slipping references into episodes of Mars "as much as possible". The film eventually developed national as well as international cult status, with Wiseau arranging screenings around the United States and in Canada, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The film now shows on the last Saturday of every month at the Laemmle in Los Angeles, with tickets regularly selling out in advance. 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 (a reference to an unexplained framed photo of a spoon on a table in Johnny's living room), toss footballs to each other from short distances, and yell insulting comments about the quality of the film as well as lines from the film itself.

Other cinemas regularly showing The Room include: the Drexel Theater in Bexley Ohio, the Uptown Theater in Minneapolis, the Mayfair Theatre in Ottawa, the Metrocinema in Edmonton, all of whom screen the film once a month; the Coolidge Corner Playhouse in Boston, which shows the film approximately four times a year; and the Prince Charles Cinema in London, where a permanent sign advertises the theater as "The London Home of The Room."

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 various props from the film: the candelabra from Johnny and Lisa's sex scenes, Denny's football, Denny's basketball (from the Chris-R scene), the red roses Johnny brings to Lisa, and Johnny's clock radio; next to him sits a large framed theatrical poster for the film. Wiseau fails to answer several of the questions, instead offering apparently unintentional non sequiturs: When asked to explain the scene where the men play football in an alley while wearing tuxedos, Wiseau only replies that playing football without protective gear is fun and challenging. Wiseau's 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.

The film was released on Blu-ray in December 2012.

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" Bandelin, 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. The book, titled The Disaster Artist, is set for publication in October 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.

In popular culture

The cable network Adult Swim has run the movie several times since 2009 as part of their April Fool's Day programming. In 2012, they showed the first twenty seconds of it before switching to Toonami for the remainder of the night.

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
• James MacDowell, 'Thoughts on "So Bad it's Good": The Pleasures of The Room' at Alternate Takes
• Richard McCulloch, 'Most People Bring Their Own Spoons’: The Room’s participatory audiences as comedy mediators at Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, Volume 8, Issue 2 (2011)
• 'Oh, Hi Mark!'