‘The Room’ at WIFF

By Kenneth Pastushyn

Greg Sestero, co-star of the movie The Room and co-author of the book The Disaster Artist made an appearance at the 2018 Windsor International Film Festival.

Sestero was inside the lobby of the Capitol Theatre prior to the midnight screening of The Room Nov. 2 for book signings and posing with fans of this cult classic.

The emcee at WIFF introduced The Room as the best-worst-best movie ever made.

“If there is a playing card-deck of movies you must see and if Citizen Kane is a king then The Room is a joker,” said Andrew Kidd, a volunteer at WIFF. “I recommend that everyone go at least once just as a rite of passage for movie fandom.”

As with The Rocky Horror Picture Show, another midnight movie cult classic, you do not go watch the movie  – you go to watch the audience. There are call backs of catch-phrases in selected scenes and moviegoers toss objects like plastic spoons at the screen. Ushers at WIFF were onstage sweeping thousands of those spoons with push brooms.

Then there are all those excessive and comically unpleasant love scenes that make the audience moan and groan. Some of the fans walk out in protest only to come back again for more.

“Yet it’s so good,” said Tyler DeMarce, who admitted to seeing The Room over 10 times with a theatre audience. “I don’t know how they made a terrible movie into something beautiful.”

DeMarce was first in line with his mother and good friend. It is their fourth year in a row together at WIFF. As usual, there was a long line out the door and around the corner.

Normally, The Room would have sold out at the smaller Kelly theatre inside the Capitol. So this year it was moved to the larger Pentastar theatre. The usher announced that 200 tickets were already sold and over 4,000 spoons would be supplied before Sestero entered the lobby.

A half-hour later the emcee introduced Sestero as “the baby-faced man himself” for a short question and answer session, answering any silly questions asked by the faces in the crowd. One questioner wondered if Sestero’s life changed since The Disaster Artist first came out referring to the movie made by actor James Franco in 2017 about the making of The Room.

“Yeah, people got a chance to come in and see a good movie,” said Sestero. “People all over the world saw The Disaster Artist and were able to relate to it …people thought it wasn’t believable and we had to tell them that it was based on a true story.”

Another asked did Sestero have any regrets about making The Room?

“We got a Golden Globe this year,” said Sestero, referring to Franco receiving the best actor award for a musical or comedy. “It worked and you take it for what it is and you move on.”

The question that Sestero was most leery about answering was rating The Room from one to 10.

“Here’s the thing, to me a bad movie is one that within five minutes you want to it turn off and it doesn’t leave you with anything,” said Sestero. “I think The Room is something that there is no way you can watch this movie and laugh as much as we do and share it with friends.”