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1.08k reviews for:
The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made
Greg Sestero
4.29 AVERAGE
1.08k reviews for:
The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made
Greg Sestero
4.29 AVERAGE
Hilarious and heartwarming. Nice to find out how that wacky movie came to be.
Having seen The Room at least half a dozen times, this book is a great ride from beginning to end. It's a great behind the scenes look at what actually went on when making The Room, an it's just as strange as you'd think. It's also a great glimpse into how, in fact, Greg and Tommy became friends in the first place. I would have liked one last chapter about how the cult phenomenon affected Greg and Tommy, but overall this is a great book.
emotional
funny
inspiring
medium-paced
The Disaster Artist is—much like Tommy Wiseau and his disasterpiece, The Room— really hard to describe. It's funny as hell for starters, but also surreal, inspirational, and terrifying. Greg Sestero seems to know what readers want, and that is copious anecdotes of Tommy & Greg, all-American best friends. He tells the story of making The Room while mixing in chapters from their wild past; from how they met, to how they ended up sharing an apartment in Los Angeles, to how Wiseau's rampant insecurities led him to write the movie/play script for the best worst movie ever made.
After watching The Room for the first time years ago, I was left with quite a few questions. After learning that the movie had a $6M budget though? I was fully caught up in the mystery. And this experience is a fairly regular outcome for those who watch the movie and don't turn it off after the opening barrage of awkward sex scenes. Wiseau's obsession with privacy makes the curiosity even worse. Through what was most likely unconscious effort, he has made himself into one of 21st century cinema's most fascinating personalities.
Sestero understands the allure and complexities of this enigmatic persona entirely. He shares enough information about Wiseau to allow the reader to feel satisfied, but remains vague enough to not completely dispel the myth. If you're a fan of the film and want laugh-out-loud BTS stories from the guy who saw it all, Sestero has that covered. If you saw the movie and needed to know more about the mind behind the magic, Sestero provides man's best shot at deciphering Wiseau's erratic neural pathways.
I'm not sure if this needs to be said, but if you haven't watched The Room, stay away from this book. You won't believe what Sestero says if you haven't seen it with your own two eyes, anyway. But if you have seen The Room, this novel is required reading. It'll give you a whole new appreciation for the movie (and for the patience of that crew that worked on it). My only complaint is that the book isn't longer.
After watching The Room for the first time years ago, I was left with quite a few questions. After learning that the movie had a $6M budget though? I was fully caught up in the mystery. And this experience is a fairly regular outcome for those who watch the movie and don't turn it off after the opening barrage of awkward sex scenes. Wiseau's obsession with privacy makes the curiosity even worse. Through what was most likely unconscious effort, he has made himself into one of 21st century cinema's most fascinating personalities.
Sestero understands the allure and complexities of this enigmatic persona entirely. He shares enough information about Wiseau to allow the reader to feel satisfied, but remains vague enough to not completely dispel the myth. If you're a fan of the film and want laugh-out-loud BTS stories from the guy who saw it all, Sestero has that covered. If you saw the movie and needed to know more about the mind behind the magic, Sestero provides man's best shot at deciphering Wiseau's erratic neural pathways.
I'm not sure if this needs to be said, but if you haven't watched The Room, stay away from this book. You won't believe what Sestero says if you haven't seen it with your own two eyes, anyway. But if you have seen The Room, this novel is required reading. It'll give you a whole new appreciation for the movie (and for the patience of that crew that worked on it). My only complaint is that the book isn't longer.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Bullying, Mental illness, Stalking
I'm hoping that it doesn't have to be said that one should watch the room before reading this book. Actually, I recommend that everyone should listen to the audio-book narrated by Greg Sestero. It's laugh out loud funny and his impersonation of Tommy Wiseau is not to be missed. Sestero's long time friendship with Wiseau is surprising. He's used this insider knowledge to bring understanding to the phenomena that is the room. I don't like the film anymore than I did before, but I do understand the forces behind it and understand and sympathize more with the actors in it. I hope it didn't ruin any of their careers.
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
This book was so much fun. I first heard about the movie,The Room, from my wife who was sent home with the DVD to see it. I had to work and passed on watching it. Fast forward a couple of weeks and I see the trailer for the movie of this book about making The Room on Facebook and my wife is STILL talking about how bad it was.
I had to see it.
It. Was. BAD. But I couldn’t stop watching! Then my wife’s friends at work were passing around this book to read before seeing the movie. I am so glad I read this. The story behind the making of this movie is entertaining as hell and had plenty of “holy smokes! Really?” moments. Towards the end I got a little annoyed with Greg (the author and who played Mark in the movie) with his lack of work ethic at the end of filming (you took the job dude) and there is one part where he came off as REALLY BITTER and blaming Tommy for his lack of acting career. Again, you took the job dude, you were the only one who read the whole script beforehand so it’s not like you didn’t know how bad it was going to be. But other than that, really fun book. A must read for anyone who has seen The Room. I just wish there was another book about what happened in the years after the first showing (and what happened at that first showing.)
I had to see it.
It. Was. BAD. But I couldn’t stop watching! Then my wife’s friends at work were passing around this book to read before seeing the movie. I am so glad I read this. The story behind the making of this movie is entertaining as hell and had plenty of “holy smokes! Really?” moments. Towards the end I got a little annoyed with Greg (the author and who played Mark in the movie) with his lack of work ethic at the end of filming (you took the job dude) and there is one part where he came off as REALLY BITTER and blaming Tommy for his lack of acting career. Again, you took the job dude, you were the only one who read the whole script beforehand so it’s not like you didn’t know how bad it was going to be. But other than that, really fun book. A must read for anyone who has seen The Room. I just wish there was another book about what happened in the years after the first showing (and what happened at that first showing.)
The trailer to the The Disaster Artist inspired me to catch a midnight screening of The Room (worth it! it is so bad that it takes an audience to help you LOL), see the James Franco film and also listen to this audiobook. It is definitely worth following the journey of Tommy Wiseau.
Maybe if I’d ever seen The Room, I’d have enjoyed the book more. Interesting character descriptions, but this isn’t a book I’d recommend or likely ever pick up to read again. And it left me with no desire to watch the movie made from it. Not the worst book I’ve read this year, but still rather blah.