Tommy Wiseau’s cult classic “The Room” is a very bad movie. Unlike other famously terrible movies like “Troll 2” and “Manos: The Hands of Fate,” its badness doesn’t make for a very entertaining watch, just an unpleasant one. While those movies have a mysterious aura that hang over the entire film, the biggest mystery for “The Room” is its enigmatic creator, whose country of origin, age, and life background remain unknown. James Franco’s “The Disaster Artist” is a very good movie about this very bad movie, one that examines Tommy Wiseau’s legend from a sympathetic angle, portraying him as an outsider trying to make the most of the American dream, while also serving as a testament to the emotional effect movies can have on us, no matter how bad they are.

James Franco (in a dual role of director and lead actor, similar to Wiseau himself’s role on “The Room”) disappears into the role of Wiseau, and gives a truly great performance. What sets the film apart is how instead of desperately trying to avoid biopic conventions, it revels in its cliche, resulting in a film that’s both humorous and also surprisingly serious.

It’s a film about one of the greatest cinematic fiascos in history, but it’s framed as a story about overcoming the odds to achieve your dreams, which is a choice that’s both hilarious and kind of ingenious. Franco, virtually unrecognizable in his Wiseau makeup, gives multiple monologues about wanting to be one of the great American artists that are almost rendered incoherent due to his perfect imitations of Wiseau’s impossible-to-pin-down accent, but because of the heart in his performance, are still inspiring and even moving.  Dave Franco as Wiseau’s closest friend Greg Sestero isn’t quite as convincing, but he’s still fun to watch as a young, wide-eyed dreamer whose passion matches that of Wiseau.

Beyond having great performances and direction, it’s also just an unbelievably entertaining watch. Fans of “The Room” will find a lot to love here, but even those who aren’t a member of the film’s massive cult like myself, or are entirely unfamiliar with it will be shocked as to just how ridiculous some of this gets. What could’ve been lazy, fan service towards a niche audience is entirely the opposite, as it finds a universal truth about ambition and the desire to create something “real” deep in the story of Tommy Wiseau, of all people.

What’s most impressive is just how human this all is. I was nervous about the film consisting solely of exploiting Wiseau’s broken English for laughs, and although it does make him the butt of quite a few jokes (In retrospect, how could it not? The man is utterly bizarre), the passion behind this makes it clear the filmmakers respect Wiseau and admire his deeply flawed, morally questionable work. At its heart, this is a story about a man destined to fail, with a dream so preposterous that not even his closest friend believes in him. And of course, he does fail monumentally, but the film doesn’t laugh at him for that. Instead it makes that horrendous failure out to be something beautiful in its own right. And isn’t that why we create in the first place?

MY RATING: B+