A Recipe for Disaster
"What do you do if it turns out really bad? Like... Like, if it turns out terrible. Would you, can you... take it off your IMDb?"
The Disaster Artist (2017)
Oh hi Mark! Is it over? Is it safe to come out yet?
To everyone else that survived 2020, I both congratulate you, and offer my sympathies. It was one for the books. One of the many things that kept us afloat was a steady reliance on streaming services - “Netflix and Chill” never felt so important before 2020. One of the films that I revisited while cloistered was “The Disaster Artist”, the telling of the true-ish story behind one of the worst films ever made - Tommy Wiseau’s “The Room” (2003). It felt fitting to watch, given that if The Room was a year, it would most certainly be 2020. In my re-watch, I realized that both the film and Tommy Wiseau embodied the catastrophe that we all inherently felt in 2020.
Wonderfully realized by the Franco Brothers, two friends embark on an adventure to Tinsel Town seeking fame and fortune, and in the words of Frank Sinatra, “Do it their way”. What they create is decidedly one of the worst movies ever made. To their credit, they roll with the punches, which we all inevitably must do, and create one of the biggest cult film phenomena to possibly rival the withstanding of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. If we learn anything about creating a career from this film, it is to follow your dreams, even when told that you’re wrong, and especially when you have the bank account to back it up. Also, when what you create is so terrible that it comes full circle, roll with the publicity dealt to you; ownership of your successes and failures is key. And when you survive one of the worst year’s in recorded history (and I’ve lived through 2016, 2001, and the Backstreet Boys).
The Review
Greg Sestero is a struggling and novice actor in the Bay Area. In his acting class, he meets Tommy (always Tommy), an eccentric recluse who has an anything goes attitude towards everything in life. After becoming fast friends, they mutually decided to pack up and move to Hollywood to pursue acting full time, living in Tommy’s LA apartment. After learning (as all actors in Hollywood pursuing the dream eventually do) that it’s not as easy as it seems in the movies, Tommy hits the end of his rope when all of his attempts at landing a role have failed. Greg offhandedly mentions that they should just make their own movie, and Tommy decides that is exactly what he is going to do.
After penning a script, buying equipment, finding a location, casting the characters, and hiring the staff, the slate drops and take one films. Craziness ensues as Tommy directs his own film, despite never having worked on a movie in his life. Other seasoned industry professionals are perplexed by his eccentric behavior and his unfounded decisions, sometimes to the point of becoming violently frustrated. Meanwhile, Tommy has hired a documentary film maker to document the filming process, likewise spying on his own cast and crew. Greg moves out of Tommy’s apartment to live with his girlfriend making Tommy more distrusting and paranoid. Turnover is high on the set and many wonder if the film will get finished at all. Tommy’s fear and paranoia causes a falling out with Greg after the film is wrapped, and they go their separate ways.
Despite all that has happened, Tommy still shows up to invite Greg to the film’s premiere where they reconcile and enjoy the measure of their success. That success starts to sour the longer the film progresses at the premiere, as the audience turns to laughing at so many key scenes throughout the film. Tommy fears the worst, that his whole effort is wasted and his life ruined, but Greg manages to turn him around and convince him to embrace the awkward, in what would eventually become a cult film achieving long-running status.
The Take
You may be wondering how a year compares to a film about a film? If 2020 has taught me anything, it’s that “disaster” is all encompassing. It now means the worst of anything possible, year, film, process, production, relationship, person, or otherwise. If we learned anything last year, it’s how to manage a response to a disaster. This response can be many things but a few universal truths are critical to survival - stick with your friends, gather your resources, and the only way out is through. Sometimes when you have hit your rock bottom, it puts things in perspective for you - you have a different view from the bottom than from the top. Last year, when things for me personally were at the worst they could be, I felt a lot of the frustration that Tommy felt in Hollywood. It’s hard enough being the weird one in your industry (i.e., being the creative in a world full of engineers). It gets even harder when you add closed doors and lack of opportunity to the mix.
"This town Greg, they don’t want me. They don’t understand me. Maybe I don’t have what it takes."
I feel like no matter where you are in your career path, you’re going to tell yourself those words sooner or later. The internal disaster is both inevitable and unavoidable. For every boldness you are bound to feel, there will always be an attached layer of fear and doubt. Sometimes those feelings become externalized, making Tommy’s newspaper rack-throwing tantrum decidedly understandable in a COVID-tense world. That scene presents an interesting revelation as well, after feeling burned, betrayed, and paranoid, and taking it out on his cast and crew, and then a helpless newspaper stand, has Tommy become the embodiment of the very Hollywood machine that spurned him? Disaster is a funny thing like that, it can make you something worse than you want to be if you aren’t careful. Another great example of that anguish and frustration is the filming of the suicide scene in The Room (side note - while I do not condone suicide in any way, the scene itself is so over-the-top and ridiculous in its delivery that it’s really genius in disguise. If you are hurting, please get help). The quirky and questioning nature of Tommy’s delivery of the scene felt like watching all of the news in 2020 at once - everything from politics to murder hornets to toilet paper shortages. If any scene sums up 2020 in a weird and wacky way, it is that scene. Disaster has many depths.
"The Dean won’t come to you, you have to go to the Dean."
Both Greg and Tommy learn a mutual love for actor James Dean (ironically played by James Franco in a made-for-television movie early on in his career). When Greg reveals his plans for visiting James Dean’s crash site, about 3 hours south of the Bay Area in Cholame, Tommy asks why they shouldn’t just go and do it. Surprisingly, this made a profound amount of sense to me after surviving 2020. While I am the first advocate for planning and strategy as the best principles to handle most situations, life is short. Short in the sense that every moment is a gift, and when time presents you with an opportunity, sometimes you just have to take it. Take that meeting with a friend, send out your resume for that dream job, apply for the house of your dreams, adopt the pet that gives you that look, and most importantly, drop everything you are doing when you need to say goodbye to a loved one. Some things in life take planning and patience, and other things are gift opportunities that your heart and your gut will tell you are the right things to do.
In Tommy’s case, he jumps on the opportunity to teach the viewing audience one of life and business’ greatest lessons - when one door shuts, build your own. Business startups do this all the time, and yet for some reason in the AEC industry a “just do it” attitude can still be viewed with apprehension. In the truest sense of “carpe diem”, some times you just gotta “go for it”, whatever that “it” may be. In some cases fear is not an option. In the opening scene of the film, the acting instructor coaching Greg at a theater class says “You’ve got to expose yourself, or no one is going to care.” I think that is true for all industries, and more so in a connected and COVID conscious world. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there, we are all exposed now, having gone through the same tragedies and compromises, the same disaster. In preparing for my recent job interview, I asked my friends, my mom, and my counselor if it is too much to mention that I learned a few things after 2020, and one of them is that I can’t go on living not doing what I love, and life is too short not to pursue my passions in life. It sounds generic and contrived but all agreed that the honest response is the best response. No one will argue that point after last year.
The Disaster Artist is essentially a zany and true case study of carving your own career out of one of the world’s most difficult industries. When I first left my home town and moved to Long Beach (in the greater LA County area) I felt very much like Greg (even if I looked a bit more like Tommy). The energy of opportunity can be exhilarating but the consistent rejection and failure can be depressing. That part can feel a lot like 2020. You will find your self quoting Tommy and screaming “You’re tearing me apart Lisa!”
As with most things, turn to your friends in time of need. One of the repeated phrases that came up frequently last year was “We’re in this together”, not just to stop the spread of a virus but to mentally survive. Tommy relies on his best friend to get through the movie, and even in filming the Disaster Artist, fans and eagle-eyed viewers will find many of James Franco’s regular comedic colleagues, in addition to his own brother Dave playing his best friend. I know were it not for my friends, family, counselor, colleagues, and my own partner, last year would have turned out very different for me. Survival is a group effort, no matter the disaster.
