The Disaster Artist

James Franco’s The Disaster Artist is based up on the real story of a flop that became a cult film. Tommy Wiseau (James Franco), a gangling misfit, conscripts a young acting student Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) into making of The Room, a movie that costs $6 million and earns only $1800; Wiseau finances the movie's release in one L.A. theater for two weeks in order to qualify it for the Academy Awards. The source of Wiseau’s wealth and his actual provenance remain a mystery to this day. The movie is full  of ironies, one of which is that The Room has gone on to be a  cult classic. The story is uncannily similar to Florence Foster Jenkins, the heiress and would be opera singer (played by Meryl Streep) who financed a Carnegie Hall appearance in which she like Wiseau became an object of ridicule. Another similarity is that the awful singing she produced also found its audience. Both movies are freak shows and both Wiseau and Jenkins are a bit like the bearded lady in the circus--with an underlying sadness to the mocking humor. However, many other aspiring gargoyles are not this lucky. Anyone with artistic aspirations who also suffers from imposter syndrome and the feeling of being an “as if “personality is likely to be haunted by The Disaster Artist. After all a deficiency in the area of self-conception and a tendency to self-delusion are qualities that constitute the careers of even truly talented individuals.