Week 34: The Room

Dear Avid Reader,

If you are going to a The Room screening, call me. I want to go.
Seriously.

I'm freaking serious.

You Are Tearing Me Apart, Lisa!

How important is it to understand what an artist intended when looking at a work of art? Would the level of enjoyment that an individual receives from Guernica by Picasso diminish if it was discovered that it is meant to be a love letter to a woman? What if it is supposed to be about Picasso's father and not about Nazi attacks? Is it any less beautiful? Any less compelling?

That's a lot of questions.

My response to these questions is "no". The artist's intended story has little to do with how I view a work. The artist needs a viewer in order to complete my idea of what art truly is. I see it as something is created and the audience interprets. What happens in my brain is what is most important, not necessarily what happened in the studio.

Now that I have explained art in simple terms, it will be easy to understand why I believe The Room is a great piece of art.

I'm Tired, I'm Wasted, I Love You Darling.
Alright. Roll those eyes back. End the guffaws. This is truth that I'm laying down.

See, it doesn't matter if Tommy Wiseau intended to make a serious movie about betrayal. The end result is a magnificent and hilarious cartwheel through wonderment. Actually, that last sentence should be the tagline on every poster of The Room.

Anyway, How Is Your Sex Life?

No mere "bad movie" could illicit the reactions that The Room does. People watch it over and over. They invented a culture around it. It has inspired other works of art like video games and fan fiction. We are dealing with a transformative tour du force.

Here's what I'm trying to say: we are living in a new world. There are now only two kinds of people, those who have seen The Room, and those that haven't seen it yet. And the final chapter will be a world where everyone has seen it. I am merely a harbinger of things to come. This is through-the-looking-glass stuff folks. So shall it be written, so shall it be done.

The only thing left to do is get your plastic spoons ready and get your tuxes on.

Until Next I Blog,

James

P.S. Did I just compare Guernica to The Room?

Click for my "The Room: Audience Participation Guide"