This February 28th, I had the absolute pleasure of going to The Screening Room in Kingston, Ontario, to finally watch The Room. While I went into the theatre expecting this screening to be quite the experience, I don’t think anything really could’ve prepared me for the next hour and a half of purely terrible entertainment.
For anyone unfamiliar, The Room is commonly referred to as “the best worst movie ever made” for various reasons. First, let me delve into the plot before really getting into the creator of this work of brilliance, Tommy Wiseau, because that’s a whole other topic that helps make this film such a cult classic.
The Room has a fairly simple plot: Johnny (played by the director and producer Tommy Wiseau) is engaged to Lisa. However, after being together for five years, Lisa becomes bored with their relationship and decides to cheat on Johnny with his best friend, Mark (who is played by Wiseau’s real-life best friend, Greg Sestero). That’s it. That’s the whole plot. Honestly, I could name about a hundred other films with that plot point somewhere in the movie, but what other movies don’t have are framed pictures of spoons, random plot lines that don’t add up, choppy and repetitive dialogue, and of course, Tommy Wiseau.
To this day, I’m convinced that Wiseau has never had a real conversation with an actual human being. I mean, every single conversation is just constant repetition for about two minutes. A personal favourite is whenever Lisa tries to seduce Mark and he reminds us MULTIPLE TIMES that “Johnny is his best friend!” Or how, for some strange reason, the film features an absurd number of framed photos of spoons in the background? In fact, spoons actually play a major role in The Room’s screenings nowadays.
Just like other cult classics such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Room features several “cues” for audience members to participate in the film. One of these cues is to throw plastic spoons at the screen whenever you see one of the many framed photos of a spoon—which of course, my audience took part in. Another popular cue involves bringing a football to the screening and tossing it around the room because, for whatever reason, the characters are always throwing around a football during some sort of insightful conversation. The more I think about it, the more absurd this movie becomes.
For greater insight as to how this film was created, the Franco brothers created a film in 2017 titled The Disaster Artist which uncovers so much more insanity. First off, The Room cost $6 million USD to make and only made $1,900 USD in opening week… In fact, the movie was so terrible Wiseau paid even more to keep it in the box office in hopes that it would qualify for academy awards. Everyone who has ever heard these numbers has questions about where Wiseau got his money from, and to this day, nobody knows. Sure there are theories about real estate and selling jackets, but Wiseau has decided to remain an enigma and keep everyone questioning.
For a long time, no one even knew Tommy Wiseau’s age or where he was from. After listening to him speak for just a few seconds, you will begin to pick up on his unique accent, which reports have suggested is from Poland. Wiseau’s brother’s girlfriend is actually the one who finally confessed that Wiseau was born in 1955, but Wiseau himself has never confessed these details.
To conclude, I need to mention that it’s impossible for me to describe just how insane this film is. I can talk and rave about it all I want, but I’ll never do The Room or Tommy Wiseau’s mysterious life any justice. So, if you love terrible movies just as much as I do, you’re in luck! The Screening Room has more showings for The Room at the end of March and I would highly suggest you take the evening to go check it out!