By David Futrelle
So I recently rewatched The Room, probably my favorite bad movie of all time, and was struck again by how much director Tommy Wiseau’s views of women mirrors those of Men’s Rights Activists and, well, a pretty high proportion of those who post regularly on Reddit.
If you haven’t seen The Room — and if you enjoy this blog you definitely need to! — it’s a comically inept film about the ultimate “Nice Guy” being wronged by his cruel, narcissistic and thoroughly hypergamous “future wife.”
I did a post on The Room as an unintentional MRA film a while ago but I’m not sure if I managed to convey just how Reddity it is. One line that stood out for me when I watched it this time was this bit of wisdom from Mark on the female of the species:
I just can’t figure women out. Sometimes they’re just too smart, sometimes they’re flat-out stupid, other times they’re just evil.
It’s not even the strangest, or worst, line in that infamous scene, but watching it this time, that line struck me as pretty much what you’d get if you could scientifically reduce all of Reddit to a single comment.
Since I couldn’t find a clip of just that line, here’s the entire scene. Trust me, it’s well worth the one minute and fifty-seven seconds it takes to watch it.
The Room was made in 2003. I don’t think you could make a comparable movie today, as all the male characters, in order to be believable, would have to spend so much time on Reddit they’d have no time left over to interact with anyone else in the real world.
If anything was believable about The Room, it just wouldn’t be the Room. The bizarre behavior of almost everyone in the movie is part of its charm (that and Rifftrax). Oh hi, Mark
That first “I DID NOT!” Actually made me start crying. God, this movie’s awful.
First time poster, longtime lurker. I want to say that the guys from mst3k skewered The Room on Rifftrax. Highly recommended.
What did I just watch? This is a real movie, for real??
Never seen it. Is it attempting to mock MRA types?
Coincidentally, my boyfriend just came home from the library with that movie.
Looks terrible.
YOU’RE TEARING ME APAAAAART!
The Room is gloriously bad and it is far better than anything I’ve seen the official manosphere poop out.
I like the Cinema Sins take on it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mvuwldnG7c0
Also, please note Johny wears cargo pants with a v-neck tank (that he wears in nearly every scene) and a blazer in the roof heart to heart with Mark. I have literally never seen anyone on Earth wear those three things together.
Nope! It was intended as a SERIOUS FILM. The guy who made it just happens to think just like MRAs. And also to be the world’s worst actor and director.
I’ve only heard of the excretable glory that is The Room from others–yet I’ve gleaned so much about it.
Though, having read at least the TV Tropes pages relating to The Disaster Artist (an account of The Room‘s production, from one of the actors–which one escapes me), Tommy Wiseau was really fucking misogynist (as well as weird and pathetic) in the waking world.
Tommy later claimed that it was a “dark comedy” and that he totally meant for it to be hilarious, proving he understands neither dark comedies nor why his film is hilarious.
Edit: Another good scene: https://youtu.be/kF0dLdIwVeI
This is fascinating. This article claims the total budget – production & marketing – was $6 million !?!?
http://www.indiewire.com/2011/06/tommy-wiseau-goes-legit-an-interview-with-the-man-behind-the-room-53844
Who financed this, and what were they smoking??
Wiseau now claims he intended the film to be a dark comedy and that his work was misunderstood to be a bad drama. He says all the ridiculousness was intentional.
He’s full of shit, but aside from that has for the most part been a good sport about the showings for comedic value. It means more publicity and more money for him, so why not laugh along?
Ninja’d
I wish I knew! There are conflicting stories.
I thought Wiseau financed it himself.
Ah, here we go:
http://www.indiewire.com/2011/06/tommy-wiseau-goes-legit-an-interview-with-the-man-behind-the-room-53844/
@Lea
Sadly, he was not so good of a sport with Doug Walker’s (The Nostaligia Critic) review of the movie. (Disclaimer: Doug is actually a friend of mine, although I met his brother Rob first)
Hey, that’s at least as plausible as any other DB Cooper theory I’ve seen . . .
“Sometimes they’re just too smart, sometimes they’re flat-out stupid, other times they’re just evil.”
…Aaaaaaaaaand then sometimes, we’re juuuuuuust right!
That’s it, right? That’s the next line, right? I mean, I’m ASSUMING that’s the next line. That or a long-winded and ill-informed take on the Maiden-Mother-Crone triptych courtesy of the Toxic Manosphere.
This self-centered, emotionally infantile, spiritually under-evolved bullcrap is why men’s rights activism will NEVER be comparable to feminism as a movement. Feminists question, challenge and, whenever possible, dismantle patriarchy. MRAs straight-up hate women. Why? Cuz heart broken and/or penis denied. Also, bitches. Fin.
Oh, and there’s NO WAY Wiseau’s not an MRA. No way.
******Spoiler Alert******
@Still Fiqah
The entire movie is about what a horrible, lazy, freeloading, cheating woman Lisa is and what a nice guy
TommyJohnny is. It’s a big long MGTOW rant in movie form.******End Spoiler Alert******
@kupo: Ugggghhhhhhhh. And it got $6 mil to make! Double ugggghhhhhhhhhhhh.
Haven’t seen the whole thing, but I can’t forget the mom who rather too cheerfully announces that she has breast cancer – and then nothing more is said about it.
Part of the reason that the film cost so much (other than the fact Wiseau’s scenes needed many takes because he kept fluffing the lines he wrote himself) is that for some reason hr shot the film in both 35mm and HD.
The guy might not be an MRA as such, but he sure had an MRA’s knack for filmmaking.