The Room (2003) - A movie that will tear you apart - 4/10 (03/12/17)

I've finally discovered this movie because of the release of The Disaster Artist which is about the making of this film and the fact that one of my local cinemas has screened this film for one hundred months in a row.

There are movies that are so bad that they are genuinely entertaining like the vivid and weird Samurai Cop. Other films are so bad that they are genuinely horrible and don't have anything going for them like the vapid Hobgoblins. The Room is actually a mixture of both types of bad movies. The first thirty minutes of the film were extremely hard to sit through and basically just consisted of poorly shot soft porn scenes. However, the final hour or so was so absurd with numerous strange subplots and a certain raise in tension that it kept my attention until the end.

There are a few elements that I genuinely like. First of all, the camera work isn't too bad if compared to numerous contemporary low budget flicks with shaky camera perspectives. Secondly, Juliette Danielle isn't only nice to look at but has a certain appeal as confused sociopath and careless femme fatale. Thirdly, Tommy Wiseau's acting skills, even though they are wooden, definitely have a memorable and unique touch and aren't like anything I have ever seen in my life. Fourthly, the movie's soundtrack blends in very well. I wouldn't call it great but it serves its purpose in the different scenes.

The other elements are so bad that they keep my attention. The acting skills vary from below average to bad. The dialogues are so thin, repetitive and wooden that an average elementary school student could have come up with something more intriguing. The main story could be described in three sentences but takes more than one hour and a half hours to unfold in a painfully slow development. The numerous unnecessary subplots going nowhere are cringe-worthy oddities that turn out being unintentionally memorable. The decorations and settings look cheap, fake and misplaced. The overlong sex scenes look so unreal that they are actually everything but exciting.

Among the biggest oddities are the random spoon pictures, the main character's friends making love in his living room for no apparent reason, the emotionless dialogue about breast cancer, the numerous random football scenes and the two fake scenes involving characters tripping and getting injured. My favorite part is however the scene in the flower shop with the overtly quick exchange of senseless dialogue lines. This scene alone shows everything this film is about: a random scene with an unimportant side character, weak acting skills, bland dialogues, ordinary settings and unintentionally funny improvisation.

The Room might have several purposes. It shows us how not to make a movie. It's a great party flick to watch with your friends to switch your brains off. It's a welcome distraction from your everyday lives. It's bizarre, goofy and almost surreal in its very unique style. It's a movie you won't ever forget. These are perhaps unintentional accomplishments that most serious films however fail to achieve which is why Tommy Wiseau still deserves some serious respect for his project.

Despite its numerous obvious flaws, it's a weird experience you won't forget anytime soon which is exactly why this disaster of a movie became a cult classic. The sad thing is that Tommy Wiseau put so much passion into this project that I would honestly recommend watching this movie over any exchangeable contemporary superhero sequel flooding the world's cinemas. The Room is one of those movies you should have watched once in your lifetime for all the reasons stated above. I'm sure I will watch it again with a bunch of friends after having just discovered this film on my own this week.