I feel the necessity to preface this review by stating that I am the second biggest Tommy Wiseau fan in our staff (I don’t believe it’s hard to find out the first). The Room is an unintentional masterpiece, mixing together awkward acting, bizarre plotlines, and providing the audience with a glimpse of what a modern day Shakespeare tragedy would look like.

With all of that said, I had my doubts for the upcoming Disaster Artist. Even though I have yet to read the book, a movie documenting the making of the cult classic did not seem promising. For one, the charm of The Room’s terrible acting would be lost with a bunch of Hollywood actors with actual talent and nature’s biggest anomaly, Tommy Wiseau, seems like the type of person that cannot be played by anyone but himself. James Franco starring as Wiseau seemed like a bizarre casting choice, since none of Franco’s work is reminiscent of Wiseau’s at all and the official trailer showed the movies biggest flaw, Franco looks nothing like Wiseau. Wiseau has a very distinctive look, one which is very hard to replicate, but Franco managed to succeed with his replication despite the setbacks.

The Disaster Artist is a great movie for anyone to watch, not just fans of the original cult classic. James Franco’s version of Tommy Wiseau is phenomenal, even if the significant height difference broke me out of immersion with the film. Although there are several comedic moments, I would not strictly refer to this movie as a comedy, as it also succeeds with developing its two main characters while creating several heartfelt moments.

Although the film succeeded my low expectations, it wasn’t a flawless film. Calling back to my previously stated fear, the acting was far too good for the sake of staying respectful to the source material. With all the odd occurrences of 2017, I never thought I would be complaining 

about good acting but here we are. Genuinely abysmal acting is hard to replicate, however I feel they still could’ve taken the forced awkwardness up a couple of notches.

Overall, The Disaster Artist surpassed my expectations and delivered on all fronts except its Hollywood level acting. Although I recommend watching The Room, this film could be enjoyed without prior knowledge of Wiseau’s masterpiece. Even though there is no reference to the holiday season, I recommend seeing The Disaster Artist if you desire a feel good movie that feels genuinely positive.