Ten Great Things About ‘The Room’

A moment of insanity by G-FUNK

Ok, let’s clear this up now: this isn’t a parody article where I come up with a bunch of sarcastic reasons why The Room is great when really I’m just pointing out why the movie is terrible. Everyone on the internet knows that The Room is a shockingly bad movie and there’s hundreds of articles and reviews about it already. These are genuinely great things about The Room. The silver linings. The flip sides of the coin.

10. It Supports Independent Film-Making

Well, maybe ‘supports’ isn’t the right word because it sure as heckfire isn’t doing the image of independent film any good. But it does show one thing – an independent film maker can, if they put their mind to it, raise enough funds to get their own film of the ground and into cinemas. The Room didn’t just get a small release, it became a cult sensation – and so can your film!

9. It’s Guerrilla Marketing at its Best

Tommy Wisseau rejected the generic movie poster that was created for the film in favour of the now famous close up of his own face. The image that he dubbed ‘Evil Man’ (but I will always think of as ‘Stroke Victim’) adorned a major billboard in L.A. leading up to the release of the movie. More amazingly he paid to keep it there for FOUR YEARS. The unusual poster generated talk and did drive people to see the movie just out of curiosity. It even became something of a tourist attraction.

8. It Gave Us Something We Can Share with Each Other

It’s not often that we get a movie that we want to share with each other. No-one just watchesThe Room and forgets about it – they show it to their friends and family, post clips on youtube and set up special screenings. It brought the film community together in a way that few films can.

7. It’s Instantly Quotable

Sometimes the longevity of a movie or even the success of the movie can depend on how quotable they are. Many people could quoteThe Room without ever having seen it. “You’re tearing me apart Lisa!” and “Oh hai Mark” can now count among the most quoted lines from recent cinematic history.

6. It’s Created Great Internet Memes

The ‘meme’ has become something of a plague on the internet. Simple gags that get rapidly run into the ground before they get the chance for the humour to develop. Sometimes they can remain consistently amusing and The Room has provided plenty of fodder.

5. It Brought Back the Midnight Screening

As cornball as the material is anyone who has been to a Rocky Horror midnight screening can attest to the fact that these events can make going to the cinema a whole bunch of extra fun. Costumes, call-out quotes and props turn a terrible movie into a party!

4. It Demonstrates Creative Problem Solving

Amateur film-makers face an avalanche of problems and they need solving. Being able to find creative solutions on the fly is a must. Tommy understood this. An actor’s schedule runs out before he’s filmed his scenes? Give his lines to another random character! The lead actress gets fired? Replace her with one of the many understudies you have for some reason! Don’t know the difference between 35mm and digital film stock? Film using both side by side! Your actor doesn’t want to strip off for the sex scenes? He makes love wearing jeans! Ok, maybe that last one wasn’t that good…

3. It Breeds Comedy

The only thing funnier than The Room is the mini-industry of comedy that has sprung up around it. From the video game to The Nostalgia Critic review to Patton Oswald’s comedy routinesThe Room has given us more entertainment then it ever intended.

2. It’s a What-Not-to-Do Guide

As a film studies teacher it’s easy to fall into the trap of only showing the students great movies. It certainly helps them develop a fine appreciation for cinema but it doesn’t help them understand the process of making movies and what can go wrong. Sometimes you need to show them something truly awful so they know what to avoid doing.

1. It Makes Us Laugh

Longer and harder than any other so-called comedy released since. And sometimes we just want to laugh.