A new year but The Room remains the same – a masterpiece…

The next screening will be in London at the Prince Charles Cinema on Saturday 30th January, book tickets right HERE.

PS Tommy wishes you all a happy new year!

Next screening on Saturday 19th December at the PCC

Thanks to everyone who came down last saturday, hope you all had a rockin’ time.

Due to overwhelming demand the PCC are putting on one more screening before Xmas on SATURDAY 19TH DECEMBER at 8.45pm, see get your tickets ASAP as it’s bound to be another sell out!

Book your tickets HERE.

Tommy loves to be by the seaside! 11PM SATURDAY 5TH DECEMBER!

For only the second time ever THE ROOM is playing outside of London, this time in the fair city of Brighton, a place noted for it’s eccentric citizens and love of the left field.

We think Brightonian’s will love Tommy’s mad directing skills!

The screening will be at 11pm on SATURDAY 5TH DECEMBER at the DUKE OF YORKS CINEMA.

You can book tickets HERE.

 

The Room goes North!

By ‘eck, The Room has finally burst out of the London bubble and is headed to the provinces!

The great city of Leeds will have the distinguished honor of being the first place in the UK outside of the capital to show Wiseau in action.

It all came about after some Yorkshire Superfans asked if they could get some ‘Roomie’ action on the cinemas Facebook page, and generally speaking what the fans want, the fans get!

So the first screening will be on Saturday 17th October at The Hyde Park Picture House on Brudenell Road at midnight.

Tickets can be bought at the box office or on the cinema’s website so book now – we’re anticipating another sell out!

Protect Lisa!

It came to our attention at the last screening at the Prince Charles Cinema that poor Lisa came under a disproportionate amount of abuse from certain sections of the audience.

It’s worth pointing out that Lisa clearly has a psychological condition so she really can’t be held accountable for her actions.

We know this because of Peter, Johnny’s psychologist friend, who makes the shrewd observation that ‘She’s a sociopath – she can’t love anyone!’ Peter is a respected medical professional so we should take on board what he is saying and go a little easier on Lisa – it’s simply not her fault she acts the way she does.

The other thing is, why the hell should Mark get away scott free?? Johnny is apparently Mark’s ‘best friend’ yet still he goes through the whole film betraying him. Lets all try re-directing our emotions towards Mark instead of Lisa at the next screening this saturday, he’s a good-for-nothing love rat! Give him hell!

And also let us not forget that Lisa is beautiful – as the clip below so brilliantly illustrates – and for this alone she should be celebrated…

PROTECT LISA!

Review: ‘The Room’ @ Bad Film Club

Here’s a review of Wednesday Bad Film Club by blogger Ruth Lang…

You know what it’s like – you’re settling down in the cinema, a stash of snacks at your side to see you through the film. But as darkness falls the people in front of you start talking, commenting on every frame as it flashes up before your eyes. And they keep it up ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE FILM.

However, when those people are Graham Linehan (creator of Father Ted), Peter Serafinowicz (who co-wrote Look Around You) and Robert Popper (producer of Peep Show) it makes for one of the best nights at the cinema you could ever hope for.

If you found David Lynch’s Lost Highway confusing, then go no further, since Nicko and Joe’s Bad Film Club chose Tommy Wiseau’sThe Room for this month’s diatribe from top comedians they invite along for the evening. Released in 2003, the film has reached cult status in the States, being referred to as “the Citizen Kane of bad movies”. Part of the attraction is, as Serafinowicz highlighted, this isn’t really a film, but more a collection of people walking through doors, cul-de-sac-esque plotlines and dialogue “that sounds like it was written by an ATM”. It’s barely 5 minutes before one of all too many soft-core baum-chicka-wah-wah sex scenes rears its ugly head (and I mean this literally – Nicko at one point drew the comparison between Wiseau’s naked body and a pasty, to give you some idea).

Nicko and Joe (replaced for the evening by Clint Edwards) had thoughtfully supplied everyone with a veritable smorgasboard of cakes, and we were provided with spoons to throw at the screen whenever one of the several framed photographs of cutlery swings into shot. This is merely one of many joyous traditions associated with the film which Robert Popper explained to the uninitiated, including yelling “FOCUS!” when the screen slips all too often into fuzziness (a blessing during those sex scenes) and “who ARE you?!” when one bafflingly unintroduced character becomes part of the main dialogue, “as if he was a frustrated audience member who has escaped into the film”, as Serafinowicz observed.

The Q&A at the end of the film divided the audience as to whether The Room was either the work of a mad man or a genius, but we were left certain that is was not the work of an actor or a writer. Tommy Wiseau wrote, produced, directed, cast, starred (as a character cunningly named “Johnny”, which when garbled out in Wiseau’s almost Transylvanian accent sounds cunningly familiar) and badly redubbed the whole sorry debacle. For this contribution to humanity alone, he will, unfortunately, achieve the fame and notoriety he evidently craves but so little deserves.

The Room is being shown again at the Prince Charles Cinema on 3rd October.

By Ruth Lang.

Video from LA screening August 29th 2009

Here’s some footage from a recent screening in LA – Tommy kicking it with the fans…

Film blogger Alex Wagner gives feedback on the September 5th screening

Here’s an extract of what Wagner had to say…

You really can’t comprehend how funny it actually is to be part of the crowd when watching The Room. I can’t even begin to explain to you the euphoria and electricity that is created when the film begins and the credits roll.

Tommy Wiseau is nothing short of a hero when it comes to making people laugh accidentally. The Prince Charles cinema is scheduled to show The Room again and if you get the chance I urge you to go and check it out. It’s so funny and make sure you bring some plastic cutlery and heckle as loud as you can!

Read the whole blog here.

The Guardian writes about The Room in G2 and online – leave your comments!

Guardian critic Steve Rose wrote a great piece about The Room a few days ago –  we are encouraging everyone to leave your comments on his blog! You can check out the article on the Guardian site here.

Is this the worst movie ever made?

The Room is so unfeasibly bad, it has become a cult hit

“The Citizen Kane of bad movies” (Entertainment Weekly); “a bad – shockingly bad – romantic tragedy” (Time Out New York); “prompts most of its viewers to ask for their money back – before even 30 minutes have passed” (Variety). Most film-makers have nightmares about reviews like these, but they’ve worked wonders for The Room, a movie whose transcendent awfulness has made it a cult phenomenon and an audience-participation fixture along the lines of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

It’s difficult to make any sort of movie, good or bad, but to make a movie that’s so bad it’s good you need vision, drive, luck and obsessive vanity. Fortuitously, The Room’s writer/producer/director/star Tommy Wiseau appears to possess all of these qualities, combined with a total lack of acting talent.

A mix of Tennessee Williams, Ed Wood and R Kelly’s Trapped In the Closet, The Room is a simple story of a guy whose fiancee is cheating on him with his best friend, but devastating plot points such as cancer, drugs and pregnancy are thrown in – then completely forgotten about. Characters disappear halfway through the film, the softcore sex scenes are excruciating, and the San Franscisco setting (it was actually shot in Los Angeles) is alluded to by amateurish back projection and repeated shots of the Golden Gate Bridge.

And elevating the whole affair to high-trash status is Wiseau himself, with his slurry Schwarzeneggerian accent and resemblance to a gym-pumped Christopher Walken in a wig. “It’s like your favourite nightmare,” says comedy writer and Room convert Robert Popper. “It’s horrible to watch the whole time. You know how if you watch The Godfather, every scene is a masterpiece? It’s the same with The Room: every scene is perfectly bad.”

The Room first gained notoriety in Los Angeles, partly thanks to abillboard advertising it that stood over Sunset Boulevard for five years. The film’s unique ineptitude began to attract rowdy repeat viewers, who would shout abuse (“Focus!”), lip-sync the worst lines (“You are tearing me apart, Lisa!”) and hurl plastic spoons (the movie features a lot of spoons). Celebrity fans such as Twilight’s Kristen Stewart and Superbad’s Jonah Hill also helped spread the word.

Having held the UK premiere of The Room last Saturday, London’s Prince Charles Cinema is starting monthly midnight screenings, and it is also playing at the Barbican’s Bad Film night (23 September), with contributions from Popper and fellow comedy writers Peter Serafinowicz and Graham Linehan. Wiseau himself often turns up to screenings, and now claims The Room was intended as “a black comedy”. He’s thinking of turning it into a Broadway musical.

‘The Room’ Strikes Back!

Wow.

Saturday 5th September at The Prince Charles Cinema.What a night. We sold out well before the show started, there was a line of people outside trying to get in and some poor folks even had to be turned away!

Downstairs it got pretty frenzied as the Wiseau hungry mob tried to bum-rush a Q&A that had over run from the film that was showing before. The ushers had to round everyone up and send them back into the bar.

There were some crazy cats that turned out on saturday. This chap took his chances and tried to get a ticket on the night – it pains us all that there were none left as he would of no doubt had some interesting things to shout at the screen. Whoever this man is we would love him to come to the next one – buy your tickets online this time my friend!!

Now these guys ROCK. Emma and Tom are siblings and decided to make it a family affair dressed up as Lisa and Johnny.

Organizer Nick Ahlmark was so taken by their dedication that he got them up on stage before the film started – the audience warmly applauded them as shining examples of true ‘Superfans’.

The brother and sister double act schlepped it all the way down from Essex especially to see the film. Emma and Tom, we salute you and dearly hope to see you again at the next screening!

At the premiere back in July we had Charlie Brooker attend and there was also a very special guest in the audience on saturday, Emmy award winning writer/director Graham Linehan (above) creator of classic TV comedy shows Father Ted and The IT Crowd.

Graham has been a hardcore fan of The Room ever since he was introduced to the movie by Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright, but this was the first time he’d seen it on the big screen and he was totally blown away by how amazing watching the film is as part of a large audience. He’ll be doing a running commentary of The Room on September 23rd at The Bad Film Club which is going to be a blast, though not surprisingly, tickets have already sold out.

We have to also give a big shout out to student Matt Dreyer who became Septembers ‘Superfan’ of the Month by virtue of the fact that he rounded up THIRTY of his mates to come down to the show! Matt was awarded a t-shirt on Tommy’s request for his sterling effort in spreading the Gospel of Wiseauology.

Though it must be said Matt and his buddies had some pretty cool t-shirts themselves that they’d created especially for the screening…

And now for the Spoons…all the fans had plastic spoons at the ready and were chomping at the bit to get throwing them.

When the first call of ‘Spoooooon!” was heard there was an eruption of the plastic cutlery flowing through the air like a tsunami.

There was some other cool stuff going on too – a protest walkout on the third sex scene, a common occurrence in the US but a first here in the UK!

Someone in the audience started a slow handclap during the love scenes which everyone got involved in…’You are my rose you are my roooooose’…

Witty comment of the night goes to a guy who upon seeing one of the weird paintings which did NOT have a spoon in it shouted out ‘ABSTRACT SPOON!’ Whoever this genius is please step forward. We’d love to hear what else you have up your sleeve.

Like the last time there was a competition to see who could give the best rendition of ‘I did not hit her, I did naaahhhhtttt! Oh hi Mark.’ Notice the carnage on the stage floor caused by all the spoon throwing.

This bloke in the blue shirt ended up getting the audience vote and won a t-shirt for his valiant effort. Well done fella, whoever you are. You did Tommy proud.

So once again a storming night had by all! We can’t wait for the next screening in October, tickets should be on sale on the Prince Charles website in the next few days so keep your eyes peeled cos their gonna go like hotcakes!