Saturday, December 15, 2018

#53: The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell

Greg Sestero is a struggling young actor in San Francisco when he meets the mysterious, larger-than-life figure Tommy Wiseau.  Their unlikely friendship spawns the cult movie The Room, and Sestero lives to tell about it in The Disaster Artist.

The making of the movie is interesting, but Wiseau looms over all the proceedings, a giant personality both generous and miserly, a great friend and a terrible enemy, an angel and an ogre, all with a fractured vocabulary and worldview.

But Sestero is ultimately kind to Wiseau--perhaps more so than the movie version of The Disaster Artist with James Franco--and acutely notes how his own loneliness, and eagerness for fame, played a role in all that transpired.

Even if you haven't seen The Room (I haven't) it is still a worthwhile read that shows truth is stranger than fiction, even when the fiction is strange.

I listened to a great audiobook reading by Sestero, on loan from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library.  Recommended for film fans.

No comments:

Post a Comment