Tom Bissell (1) (1974–)

Fascinating cult movie tell-all is much better than it had to be, with lively pacing and delicious passages that you will want to read aloud to your spouse. "The Disaster Artist" is a hilarious, creepy, and at times quite sad behind-the-scenes look at an inexplicably, aggressively gawd-awful movie, "The Room," and its enigmatic maker, Tommy Wiseau--a mostly hapless Schwarzenegger sound-alike who yet, at his most sinister, conjures the homicidal promise of Joyce Carol Oates' age-inappropriate show more villain in the too-big boots from "Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?"

Though I enjoyed every page, this well-written book left an aftertaste for me: Does "The Disaster Artist" cruelty exploit an easy target--a needy, essentially friendless man-child (who heavily subsidized its struggling actor author's L.A. rent)? Or--weirder--is "The Room" a long con, with Tommy in on the joke? We may never know. show less

I needed to read this book right at this moment. Equal parts a tribute to unfettered ambition and a ruthless lampooning of clueless dreaming (with little to no talent or cognizance to back it up) The Disaster Artist is, in it's own way, a brilliant work.

It's a brilliant work because of how honest it is. And that honesty can be boiled down to: LA and the dread 'Hollywood Industry' are, frankly, quite awful. I say this as someone who's lived in LA for most of his life and wouldn't live show more anywhere else (mostly). But Sestero shows the ruthlessness of his industry along with the abject level of clueless of its many many victims. These victims seem to be Sestero himself, and the center of the book's storm Tommy Wiseau. The former looks to have stepped back and gained (or always had) a level of awareness about it, while the latter...well..the latter?

Tommy Wisaeu is one of the most brilliantly conceived fictional characters who just happens to be an actual living person. I don't know how much if any of his story (the various and contrasting iterations he gives notwithstanding) are true. And Sestero does a wonderful job illustrating him on the page. He's funny, he's scary, he's kind, he's a jackass, he's faithful and a surprisingly good friend, he's Ahab and King Lear blended together and held together, just barely, by his utter and complete obliviousness not only to the world around him but the world within him as well. In short: He's clueless to a level that can only really be described as Biblical.

And the book works. Sestero's and Wiseaus' struggles to be actors, to be seen, regarded, to perform, feel incredibly well and are delineated passionately. The taste and feel of LA is on full display here and along the way we get good descriptions of life simply going on and on around these characters in the best way possible, in that as the characters fail, life goes on.

I'm way out in outer left field here, outer outer outer left field, but when I mentioned that I needed to read this book, this is what I was talking about. Reading this book has taught me (or re-taught me, or reminded me, go pick one) that it's okay to fail. No, really, it's okay to try and fail and to even try and fail repeatedly. This may sound like simple logic to some but for many years, due to an upbringing slathered and saturated in post baby boomer nonsense salted with some gen-X nonsense and dunked by some additional gen y and millennial nonsense, I got into my head what can only be termed a pathological fear of failure.

But reading this book reminded me, which is weird given how otherworldly Wiseau himself is, that not only is it okay to fail, it's probably far better for you than any victory. One learns with loss, one changes and matures and grows and yes, even evolves. I feel Wiseau by the end of the book has changed, having become just slightly cognizant with everything reality had thrown at him, despite his near unbreakable shield of bottomless (and mysteriously sourced) financing. But it's the voice of the narrator himself, presumably Greg Sestero, that showed me true transformation and beneficial evolution in the face of repeated rejection and failure. In the book's closing pages he seems to have really accepted just what it is to be a passenger on Ahab's ship and much like Keroauc's On the Road has become older but most certainly wiser, even intelligently melancholy and wistful for the nonsense of his younger days.

But more than anything else, it's a funny book, hilarious even. Go read it for that if nothing else.

"YOU'RE TEARING ME APART, LISA!!!!" show less

The Room. One of the strangest and most gloriously bizarre pieces of American cinema I have ever seen. Written, directed, produced and starring Tommy Wiseau, it is commonly referred to as the worst movie ever made (which I disagree with; I think that title belongs to the absolutely horrible Troll 2, but I digress). The Room is one of those movies you have to experience as any attempt at explanation doesn't do it justice. The closest I can come up with is it is what an ideal American life show more would be like as explained by a space alien who doesn't understand humanity at all or that movies need a certain amount of continuity to make sense. There is something special, some undefined quality that even as you watch in utter shock that something this bad actually made it to the big screen, the complete ridiculousness of every scene and dialog is just so endearingly odd that you can't help but laugh the whole time. If this description has made you curious at all I encourage you to check listings, find a theater showing in your local area if you can and go see it. It's definitely better watched with a full audience, though if it isn't playing in your area I'm sure a small party viewing at home is fun too.

Greg Sestero plays Mark in the film, the main co-star, and is friends with Tommy in real life. I went into this book expecting to read about the origins of the movie and some behind the scenes stuff of how it was made. I got this and oh so much more. Greg goes into how his friendship with Tommy started, what Tommy is actually like, a bit of Tommy's history and a lot of information about what it's like to be a struggling actor trying to make it in Hollywood. Great is one of the lucky ones who manages to acheive some modest success. It makes for a surprisingly great read.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author. I highly recommend this format. Greg absolutely nails Tommy's strange accent which adds so much to the book. I'm not sure the story would have been as enjoyable as a traditional read. show less

"¿Quién es Tommy Wiseau? ¿Eh?". Esa viene a ser la pregunta que The Disaster Artist intenta contestar, y lo hace de la mejor manera posible: explicando cómo es vivir con él. Greg Sestero, Mark en "The Room", nos cuenta todo lo que puede sobre Tommy (todo lo que puede sin arriesgarse a que Tommy le asesine, por lo menos) y sobre él mismo. La historia de Greg es fundamental también, el joven modelo inseguro que quiere ser actor y cuyo primer contacto con Wiseau, la persona show more diametralmente opuesta a él (no muy agraciado, pero seguro de sí mismo hasta límites absurdos), cambia por completo su vida. ¿Para bien? ¿Para mal? Que cada uno decida.

Los capítulos se alternan: uno sobre el rodaje de "The Room" (tan increíble como cabría esperar) y otro sobre las aventuras de Greg y Tommy al conocerse. Mención aparte para las pequeñas viñetas, basadas en las contradictorias historias del reservado Tommy, que intentan hacer una aproximación a lo que parece haber sido la vida anterior de Tommy, un americanófilo en el bloque comunista que sueña con dedicarse al cine (o no, que a saber).

Si has visto la película, no entiendo cómo podría no interesarte una crónica de cómo se hizo, o un análisis psicológico de la mente que la parió. Es un libro hilarante, entretenido y hasta un poco conmovedor. What a story, Greg. show less