Red Sparrow is a 2018 spy-thriller film directed by Francis Lawrence who worked with Jennifer Lawrence (the star here) on a couple of the Hunger Games movies, but this is a very different beast. Jennifer Lawrence plays Dominika Egorova (in, it has to be said, a not entirely convincing Russian accent), and Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenarts and Charlotte Rampling star as the film's secondary characters. This one is a pretty big departure from what Lawrence has done in the past, although it has to be said that she's making some pretty bold career choices. I'm not the first one to say that, and for a good reason: it's true. After last year's Mother! it appeared as if she was trying purposefully trying to appear in more "mature" films, and believe me, it doesn't get much more mature than Red Sparrow. The film plays out like one of those schlocky exploitation from the seventies, in that there's sexual violence, sex, violence, torture, and all manner o
It was 2003, and a billboard went up on Highway Avenue in Los Angeles. On the left side, there was a blown-up image of the "Evil Man," which is nothing more than Tommy Wiseau with one eye half-closed. The rest was covered in the title of the film, written in a word-art style font, and the address for the film's promotional website. Adverts appeared on TV and in some newspapers, describing it as "a film with the passion of Tennessee Williams." And so, The Room infiltrated American theatres.
Nobody saw it at first. It was shown in the Laemmle Fairfax and the Fallbrook for two weeks, and so many people asked for refunds, the theatres had to put up disclaimers, explaining just how bad the film was. Critics hated it, audiences hated it, even the theatres hated it. Tommy Wiseau had become a bit of a pariah in the film industry. It seemed like The Room was going to leave theatres exactly the way it entered them: quickly, with very little attention.
Which is when Michael Rousselet saw it. He loved it, but for all the wrong reasons; to him, it was a goldmine of unintentional comedy and bafflingly poor production. He invited his other friends to come and see the film, which started a very effective word-of-mouth campaign. By the end of the film's run in theatres, 100 people ended up seeing one of the screenings. Rousselet and his friends saw the film four times in three days. Celebrities caught on, and the film's theatrical run extended to the UK, Australia and New Zealand. A legend was born.
The billboard located on Highway Avenue, Los Angeles
Everyone knows about the stuff in The Room - the awkward sex scenes, the poor dialogue and acting, all of the subplots which are never resolved. But very few people know about the history surrounding it. Even the people who do know don't know that much. The first confusing about The Room is its budget of $6 million. Where did Tommy Wiseau get the money? Well, Wiseau himself claims he made the money...selling jackets imported from Korea? Let me just reiterate: 6 million dollars worth of jackets. That's all he had to say on the matter. Greg Sestero (who plays Mark in the film) claims Wiseau made a fortune in real estate development in the LA and San Francisco areas. That may be the closest we'll ever get to the truth. Sestero also claims that the film's budget was higher because Wiseau insisted on building sets for scenes which could have been filmed on location, and because he took days to film minute-long scenes because he couldn't remember his own lines.
But the biggest mystery surrounding Wiseau is his actual identity. In some interviews, he's said that he lived in France at one point in his life, and other times he's claimed that he grew up in New Orleans. He also says that he has an entire family in Chalmette, Louisiana. Wiseau also says that he was born in 1968 or 1969, but Sestero claims to have seen Wiseau's immigration papers, and that he was born much earlier. Rick Harper, in the documentary Room Full of Spoons, claims that found proof that Wiseau is Polish and from Poznan. Wiseau also claims to have worked several jobs, including one selling discount jeans, and others as a hospital worker and a busboy before moving into real estate. Sestero believes it's impossible that Wiseau made his fortune from the jobs he'd done. Some people involved in the production of The Room believe the film might have been made as part of a money laundering scheme, but Sestero considers it unlikely.
I don't think we'll ever know the truth about any of this stuff. The fact that Wiseau is so enigmatic is what makes him such an interesting figure. Part of the joy of watching The Room is wondering why half of the stuff was included. Why are there so many unexplored plots? why was Wiseau so adamant about the film being made exactly as he wanted it? Why was it promoted in such a strange way, and where did they get such a large budget?
Wiseau himself is a person who almost defies logic. He sounds like something from a mystery novel, or some kind of scathing satire of the American dream. But he's real, and thank God for that. I don't think we'll ever see another film quite like The Room.
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