Few bad films have received such prolonged adoration and exposure as The Room. The story of Johnny (Tommy Wiseau), an ‘All-American guy’, and his fiancée, the ‘devious’ Lisa (Juliette Danielle), who cheats on him with his handsome best friend Mark (Greg Sestero), has been screening in cinemas worldwide since its initial release in 2003. Audiences are enamoured by the film’s hilarious incompetence. It is peppered with creepy and inconsequential characters, horrendous dialogue (‘Leave your stupid comments in your pocket!’), and baffling directorial decisions. Audience rituals have become a part of the screenings. Room fans dress up as their favourite characters, yell dialogue, and throw objects at the screen during certain scenes, à la The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).

Greg Sestero released his memoir The Disaster Artist: My life inside The Room, the greatest bad movie ever made (2013) in response to mounting interest in the film’s conception and its enigmatic creator, Tommy Wiseau. Beneath the The Room’s many absurdities was a compelling account of Greg and Tommy’s turbulent friendship leading up to and during the film’s production, and beneath that, a treatise on Hollywood, the American Dream, trauma, grief, and delusion that framed a detailed portrait of Wiseau.