The Disaster Artist Review

The easy version of this story is mockery and the film declines it. Critics repeatedly note that the picture takes Wiseau seriously as a person, an unknowable man of unplaceable origin and bottomless funding who wants to be loved and has no idea how to ask, and that decision elevates it above a feature length joke. James Franco disappears into the accent and the laugh without ever winking, and the performance keeps the film's sympathy in place even through the cruelty on set.

Dave Franco makes Greg's slow disillusionment convincing, and Rogen's exasperated script supervisor supplies the audience's reactions without condescending to anyone. The recreations of scenes from The Room are exact enough to draw applause on their own. The limits are real. The film is thin about why Greg stays, it skips the actual work of production in favor of highlights, and viewers who do not know the source material get considerably less from it. Some reviewers find the final act too generous to a man the film has just shown behaving badly. It is a warm, well acted comedy about the gap between ambition and ability.