However you first came across The Room, be it in a university classroom after hours, a secret screening at your local cinema, or as a recommendation from a friend (or, understandably, an enemy), you will undoubtedly consider it something of a modern masterpiece for all the wrong reasons.
Dubbed “the Citizen Kane of bad movies”, The Room has been ironically entertaining audiences since it came to public attention in the mid-Noughties, transitioning via word-of-mouth to cult classic status. But whether the man at the centre of the cult, its enigmatic director Tommy Wiseau, truly knows quite why his film is so beloved remains a mystery.
The star, director, writer, producer and sole financier of the project, Wiseau is a strange, marble-mouthed provocateur of unknown origin, with garbled syntax and and a hairstyle straight out of Whitesnake. Little is known about Wiseau’s history or personal life, but it is believed he found financial success importing clothing to the United States, and spent $6 million of his own funds on bringing The Room to life.
