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The Schmooze

Seth Rogen Made A Movie About The Worst Movie Ever Made

“The Room”, a 2003 independent film written by, produced by, and starring a flowy-haired vampiric mystery-man named Tommy Wiseau, has been hailed as the “worst movie ever made.” As a famous-in-its-own-right IMDB review put it:

If you took the greatest filmmakers in history and gave them all the task of purposefully creating a film as spectacularly horrible as this not one of them, with all their knowledge and skill, could make anything that could even be considered as a contender. Not one line or scene would rival any moment in The Room.

Compelling! But since I always thought “The Room” was a horror movie because the poster looks like the mugshot of a serial killer, and because I have not watched a scary film since the movie version of the Disneyland ride “The Haunted Mansion” brought me to tears as a teenager, I have never seen “The Room”.

But now that Seth Rogen, James Franco, and Evan Goldberg (the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost of Jewish comedy) are making a movie about the making of “The Room”, it is time to be brave. “The Disaster Artist”, based on a book of the same name written by one of the original movie’s stars, comes out on December 1st. A trailer released today suggests greatness. The movie stars Rogen, Franco, Franco’s even cuter and even more proudly Jewish brother Dave, Zac Efron, and Ari Graynor, all Jewish royalty. “The Disaster Artist” is generating major buzz, from Oscar rumblings on down.

Here’s the trailer:

Here’s the scene from “The Room” that’s being parodied (ish):

Our thoughts: 1. Who is that in the Cher wig? 2. Oh, it’s James Franco, you can tell from his mumble-slouching. 3. Seth Rogen working that Hawaiian shirt is a direct hit against anti-Semites everywhere. 4. Both Rogen brothers have phenomenal eyebrow dexterity. 5. Is that shack James keeps popping out of the Room itself? Or is the Room a state of mind? 6. I see only women who were willing to wear thick-framed glasses and bangs were allowed to act in this movie. 7. James Franco’s characters always have the exact combination of swagger and uselessness that I have grown so accustomed to in my friends’ boyfriends. 8. I want to be the water bottle that James Franco throws to the ground. 9. Oh dear. 10. I am excited to see this movie.

Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny.

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