Discredited Meme: The book quashed the "Wiseau hired an actual drug dealer to play Chris-R" conspiracy theory by revealing Dan Janjigian was just an ordinary guy who wasn't a professional actor, but took his craft very seriously. Which is still an impressive feat.
When his Nostalgia Critic review of The Room was taken down for "copyright infringement," Doug Walker produced a video mocking the situation featuring the supposed writer of the email, identified as "John from theroommovie.com." In this book, Greg Sestero revealed that one of Tommy's many, many roles at Wiseau Films was the administrative assistant, under which he worked with the pseudonym of "John." In fact, Walker comments that while he's still not sure who sent the email, it smells of Tommy.
While auditioning for Andre Toulon, Greg mentions that James Franco auditioned for the same part. James Franco directed and starred as Tommy in the movie version of the book.
Iron Woobie: Almost everybody that stuck with the film to the very end. Carolyn Minnott (Lisa's mother, Claudette) continued filming even after fainting/recovering from heat stroke. Greg especially, whose relationship with Tommy turns borderline toxic by the end.
Jerkass Woobie: Tommy. He has absolutely no friends other than Greg. Then you find out why.
Eating in the living room set, Tommy prepares his own lunch because he's paranoid of people spitting in it and would not use plastic utensils for fear that they are poisoned.
Also the fact that he was filming everything everyone said on the set, saying it was just for a behind the scenes feature.
Also the fact that he recorded his phone conversations.
He was very upset with Greg for ad-libbing a line that included the street his San Francisco condo was on, despite Greg assuring him there was no way anyone could make the connection.
Tommy in general seems terrified of anyone knowing absolutely anything about his personal life, especially how he earns his money. Greg describes him as acting like he was famous before he was even famous.
Took the Bad Film Seriously: Aside from the obvious example in Tommy Wiseau, Dan (who, in Greg's words, was never one to half-ass anything) read up on Uta Hagen and Stanislavsky (the latter one of the codifiers of Method Acting) to prepare for his role as Chris-R. Carolyn Minnott also took her role seriously, as she had wanted to act for a long time and this was one of the only parts she could get.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Tommy, strangely enough. Arguably, the book's depiction of him Crosses the Line Twice and makes the reader empathize with how much of His Own Worst Enemy he is, desperate for friends but so mentally imbalanced and impossible to deal with that nobody would give him the chance (if anything, it's the only thing relatable about him). Even Greg doesn't know why he stays friends with Tommy despite the hell he puts him through. He's also gone on record by saying he believes his friendship with Tommy was probably the only human experience Tommy has had ever. It doesn't excuse how he treated the cast and crew of his movie, but it does make you feel at least a bit sorry for the guy.
The Woobie: Juliette Danielle, the actress who played Lisa. Between the script, the costumes, the make-up, the lighting, and Wiseau's on-set attitude, she was set up to fall short of "temptingly beautiful." Tommy actually made her cry when he tactlessly pointed out that she had pimples and everyone heard it. Reading about how the sex scenes were filmed just makes you want to hug her. Anyone who has had a naked Tommy Wiseau on top of them deserves nothing but sympathy.
The Movie
Accidental Aesop: While your chasing dream may not turn out exactly the way you want it to go, you can still make something positive out of what you actually get from it. Tommy's film may not have been loved as a serious dramatic film but it did find a different type of love from a audience that embraced it as a unintentional comedy.
Decide for yourself: is this film a blistering satire of the Hollywood Hype Machine that mocks people like Tommy for chasing their empty dreams of stardom, or is it a sincere love letter to Hollywood that shows how even the most untalented people can rise to the top with enough passion and determination (a la Ed Wood)? Both?
Kyle Kallgren described both the book and the movie it's about as an unintentional deconstruction of cinematic auteurism. Tommy longs to emulate the great Hollywood directors of the past, but most of the stories he's heard about them usually involved some kind of sadistic egotism done in the alleged name of True Art (he names Alfred Hitchcock throwing live birds at Tippi Hedren on The Birds as one example in the movie). As a result, he ends up unintentionally caricaturing these kinds of toxic attitudes often associated with auteur filmmakers because he assumed that it's just something they do to get what they want.
Award Snub: Sexual misconduct allegations against James Franco emerged after he had won a Golden Globe for his performance. Subsequently, he was not included in the Best Actor Academy Award Nominations [when he'd previously been considered all but a shoe-in] and several awards shows failed to give him nominations or wins as a result of the allegations.
Awesome Music: The movie has an excellent collection of classic pop songs used as cues for key scenes, such as "Rhythm Of The Night" by Corona for when Tommy is happily dancing at the bar and Faith No More's "Epic" during the slo-mo shot of Greg and Tommy showing up on-set for the first day of filming.
Cliché Storm: Some of the things that were changed from the book and invented for the movie are pretty cliche. For example, in the movie, Tommy is inspired to do The Room after an agent not only turns him down but literally says "you'll never work in this town". So is Greg Sestero going from a struggling actor who's been in a couple of things to a struggling actor who has never booked a job in his life.
Harsher in Hindsight: The sexual misconduct allegations against James Franco makes Tommy's treatment of Julliette harder to watch. The rest of the crew, especially Greg (played by Dave Franco) pulling Tommy aside and insisting he can't treat people that way, telling Juliette to tell him if she feels uncomfortable, and the way she reacts during the premiere +where it's clear she feels a great deal of shame for the sex scene) doesn't help. Making matters worse, during her audition, Juliette outright asks if this is a real movie of they're just taking advantage of her, which is exactly what Franco's former students have accused him of doing.
He Really Can Act: Some viewers find the real Tommy Wiseau's cameo in The Stinger to be an unironically good performance, effectively portraying a guy trying to connect with Wiseau, but being rebuffed and effectively delivering his lines without his bizarre Cold Ham style.
Tommy gets really defensive after being told he should stick to playing villains and monsters. Shortly after the film came out, the real Tommy Wiseau made an audition tape of himself playing The Joker and having the time of his life doing so.
In the film itself. During the premiere, Sandy points out during the "Hi doggy" scene that there's no way anyone could mistake Tommy for somebody else. Post-credits, we see him encounter the real Tommy Wiseau.
Tommy and Greg fall out when Tommy refuses to let Greg shave his beard for another role. Not long after the film's release, Henry Cavill experienced a similar predicament when reshoots for Justice League (2017) clashed with his work on Mission: Impossible – Falloutnote Much like Greg, Cavill had grown thick facial hair for Fallout and was contractually obligated by Paramount to not shave it when filming the Justice League reshoots, forcing the workers on the latter film to use CGI to remove his mustache in the reshoots.
Ho Yay: Moreso than the book. It's so blatant that one would think it's intentional Homoerotic Subtext, except that James Franco is on record for thinking their relationship is "brotherly." See the page for more.
Narm Charm: James Franco's entire performance as Tommy Wiseau is completely ridiculous, although that's the point given that that's just what Tommy seems to be like — and said performance ends up being surprisingly moving in places, in spite of the ridiculous accent.
Overshadowed by Controversy: Going with Award Snub, the conversation around the film has mostly been tied around James Franco's sexual abuse accusations, as they went public the night of the Golden Globes. As a result, James Franco's role went largely overlooked outside of the Golden Globes, as people became uncomfortable with giving him awards in light of the accusations.
In the film version, Greg Sestero is played by James Franco's brother Dave Franco, while James plays Tommy Wiseau. It was pointed out in the book that Tommy and Greg have no family resemblance whatsoever. There's also the homoerotic undertones to their friendship, which of course could be treated as Incestuous Casting in this case (James himself viewed the relationship as brotherly and urged Dave to take the role because of it). Some of these complaints subsided when the elder Franco's physical transformation into Wiseau was revealed (resulting in him spending hours in the makeup chair to get all the prosthetics) leading to him hardly resembling his brother.
The film has a large number of big name actors in extremely small roles. While it's not like they do a bad job, seeing so many A-listers as little more than extras proves to be rather distracting.
Retroactive Recognition: The film parodies the audience's recognition of Bryan Cranston, who's best known to contemporary audiences for his portrayal of Walter White on Breaking Bad. However, because the film is set between 1998 and 2003, 5-10 years before Breaking Bad premiered, Greg instead recognizes Cranston from Malcolm in the Middle.
Special Effects Failure: The fake beard that Dave Franco wears for much of the film is not convincing in the slightest. For starters, it doesn't cover the underside of his chin or neck.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Quite a few people have criticized the movie for glossing over some of Tommy's worse moments and making him come off as more sympathetic, when the book goes out of its way to describe how big of a jerkass he was. Tellingly, whereas Wiseau himself hates the book version, he loves its film adaptation.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The real-life story of Greg's Rage Breaking Point, where he imagined that he was screaming "Why are you doing this to me?" at Tommy when he had to read the line "Leave your stupid comments in your pocket!", is arguably a more effective and interesting story than the scuffle he and Tommy have in the park, which was invented for the movie adaptation.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Tommy, in a different way than the book. The film is very upfront about the fact that Tommy does not have any other friends than Greg and has very little human interaction. It's up in the air whether it's because he's mentally ill, or extremely traumatized but his behavior does make sense when you see him in that light. In the scenes where Sandy and Raphael are mocking him, it's hard not to feel bad when they're picking on quite possibly the easiest target in LA. Similarly in the scene where he's laying into Juliette Danielle, as unreasonable as he's being, it's not hard to pity him. He has a (somewhat incomprehensible) vision of how the movie's supposed to go and is getting constant pushback by people who don't get him.
Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: The demands of a Compressed Adaptation meant that many scenes from the book of Greg's friendship with and affection for Tommy had to be cut out, leading for some to question why, after all of the trials on set and Tommy ruining a chance for him to get a role on a popular show (which is not what happened in Real Life), Greg would not only go back to being friends with Tommy but also give him a pep talk at the premiere.
