Contemplations on Tommy Wiseau's "The Room"

For years, I wanted to watch a very unique movie, created, directed and played by the eccentric individual known as Tommy Wiseau, a person so bad at what he does he actually managed to ironically generate a masterpiece.

Masterpieces, obviously, are based on virtues such as high quality, experience and so on, but how come this specific masterpiece was managed to be such for so long, simply due to how bad it is? Whether you liked it or not, most if not all people can agree, ultimately, that this is a bad movie, and yet, it has yet to be forgotten, probably even becoming one of the greatest worst movies of all time.

For those who have yet to watch this movie, I highly recommend it, and it can even be found for free on YouTube. The reason as to why I've decided to write about this movie is this -- I believe it can teach us that good and bad isn't necessarily a spectrum; a contrast that goes either way, but never the exact same. "The Room" can teach us that even a bad experience can be enjoyable, and perhaps even vice versa. It is so very hard, after all, finding any other bad experience that is both bad and enjoyable at the same time.

To compare as realistically as possible -- there are good items out there that just don't give us the pleasure or enjoyment we seek. even though the object of consumption itself is good overall. Think of an event, such as celebrating your birthday at a restaurant, visiting a different country and so on -- what I'm trying to convey here is that happiness cannot be forced, and thus, even if you have a good experience, you won't necessarily be distinctively satisfied with it.

The reason why "The Room" is enjoyable is because it shows us something different, even if it sucks all and all. Many people were amused with the awkward dialogue, how weird and nonsensical some of the characters are -- the fact that the movie was horrible is exactly why it was so fascinating. That itself is a paradox, as we are not supposed to enjoy something that is bad.

After all, it is common sense that we seek to enjoy the good and avoid the bad. And yet, there are times, even if rare, were the decent is boring, and the bad is just awesome, if not mysterious.

Of course, I'm not saying that everyone will enjoy this specific movie, probably because of how many sexual scenes it has; scenes which were long and unnecessary, even though they were intended to keep us interested. What are sexual relations, after all?

Most of us adults crave them from those whom we are attracted to, and still -- the mentioned sexual scenes in this movie were boring, unreasonably long and so on, even to people, theoretically, who are sexually active. As told before -- the common sense is that the biological imperative is to seek pleasure/good and avoid harm/bad. If so, then why were these passionate scenes criticized for their unnecessity by those who are sexual beings?

Do you understand what I'm trying to convey here? The paradox of experience is that not all good experiences will bring you satisfaction/pleasure or whatever, and not all bad experiences will bring you any kind of negative reaction as a result. Therefore, not all cases are to be put in the spectrum that separates excellency and failure. We can even say that something can be so bad in quality, it can become a good of its own, and something so well-produced or well-experienced can be just that, but still create a horrid quality of itself.

There is something else that can be taught from the mess that is "The Room" -- that it's okay to be terrible at times, that we don't have to be always perfect. What if, in an alternative universe, this movie was actually pretty decent? Surely, there are many decent movies that we can watch today, but how memorable are they compared to this universe's "The Room"?

What if the distinct "bad-ness" of this movie is what actually made it far more remembered than many other, far greater movies? If we are to show someone this movie and another movie that is actually decent, what will they remember in the far future -- a strangely unique movie or the just-another good movie?

I can at least say for myself that I watched a lot of movies in my short lifespan, but "The Room" was definitely an experience I'd probably won't forget, while on the other hand, there are a lot of other movies that I watched and enjoyed, but have forgotten about them. This is the paradox of what can be called the "spectrum of quality".

In the end, it's not only the quality or the decency that counts, but also the "being-ness" of one in said product/experience. The strength of said "being-ness", at least by this movie's example, is also one's capability to be distinctive. If you want to be authentically decent, therefore, you must be remembered more than your competitors, because otherwise, even with all the technical effort, you'll be remembered as just a component in a category, instead of something of your own.

Thank you all for reading this article. And, by the way, here's the full movie.