Occasionally, there comes a set of circumstances so insane you can hardly believe them. That just happens to describe the making of the movie, The Room, the 2003 film now with a cult following created by Tommy Wiseau. Greg Sestero recalls the events of that time in his life as well as meeting Tommy and breaking into acting in his tell all book, The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made.
The book is a roller coaster from start to finish. The story is of a young actor trying to make a name for himself and eventually meeting the one individual that inspires him to never give up like no one else.
We get a look into the man that made one most notoriously bad movies ever and the insane quirks that just made it happen. The book is paced in an odd way, at least for a nonfiction book. The book has two timelines like many fiction thrillers that details events that end up converging in the final crescendo. Normally, I hate these kind of books. Many times, one of the stories frags on or is downright boring. This tale is not. One story line involves the filming of The Room while the other starts with Greg as a young man taking acting classes, getting into the industry and meeting Tommy Wiseau.
The back and forth between the events allows the reader to really understand the oddness of Tommy Wiseau and allows the reader to get a picture of what the crew was thinking during production and giving background to the Wiseau process as the story unfolds. This book is an example of back and forth story lines working well and complementing each other. Sestero’s story is a solid one. He’s a young actor trying to build credibility while trying to build confidence. Wiseau gives absolutely zero cares in the world and is headstrong and fearless in trying anything to get into Hollywood. This boldness empowers Sestero as the story and his life progresses and he truly learns from Wiseau even if in many cases it’s exactly what not do after the fearless part.
Overall, The Disaster Artist is a fun, compelling read. You may not be able to finish it all in one sitting, though.There were times where I did have to stop after each chapter to really soak in what I had just read and to ask myself did that really just happen. I do highly recommend picking this one up.
