RiffTrax and The Room

I’ve already written more about The Room than I ever wanted to.

When I watched the film for a Way Too Late review back in March, I had no idea how the idea of this movie would catch and fester in my mind. I still hold firm to my original assessment: the movie is the worst POS I’ve ever seen. It’s not intentionally brilliant, it’s just bad. Tommy Wiseau isn’t an Andy Kaufman-esque genius who set out to intentionally make a bad film. He’s a narcissist who made a movie because he had the money to do so.

And yet over the last month, I can’t stop talking about it. I’ve had lengthy conversations both in-person and on Twitter with people about The Room. While the film angers me with its very existence, there’s something about it that my brain can’t stop thinking about. Was it done on purpose? Would the movie be better any other way?

I got the chance to find out the answer to my second question this week, when I attended a showing of RiffTrax Live! For those of you not in the know, RiffTrax is the current iteration of the now-defunct Comedy Central show Mystery Science Theatre 3000. The RiffTrax premise is simple: professional comedians “riff” about a movie, making fun of the plot holes, dialogue, or anything else that comes to mind. Over the years the RiffTrax crew has riffed on everything from Starship Troopers to Manos: Hands of Fate. But can their humor improve The Room?

“They sent me a proposal and I approved the proposal. I’m pro-freedom, so I said why not, let people have fun.” —Tommy Wiseau

I have to give credit where credit is due: watching The Room in a crowded theater full of people who are laughing along to the jokes made by professional comedians is a much more enjoyable experience than watching The Room by myself in my apartment. The RiffTrax crew (Michael J. Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy) keep the jokes coming at a steady pace, rarely going more than a minute or two between jokes. During the screening, everything was fair game, from Tommy Wiseau’s looks to the endless establishing shots of San Francisco (we know, we know). While a few of the jokes were off-color, most weren’t; RiffTrax’s comedy isn’t genteel, but neither is it sarcastic and biting. These guys enjoy watching bad movies and their love for the *cough* art form shows through in their humor.

The RiffTrax Live! event also included a short film, Float, to warm the audience up. As someone who grew up watching short educational films like this is school, Float was fun to watch and was a great warm-up for the main event.

There is a third way to watch The Room, in a Rocky Horror-style midnight screening. (WEB LINK TRIGGER WARNING: Bad GIFs.) I don’t know if my psyche can handle watching The Room a third time, but I just might give it a shot. A gold-plated dog turd is still a dog turd, but I’ve been impressed so far by the lengths people will go to polish the particular turd that is The Room.

tl;drs

Quick summary: RiffTrax is three guys providing hours commentary over the worst movies ever made. The Room, of course, is the worst movie ever made. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Widely not disputed on the Dorkaida staff. Just that the worst movie ever made MIGHT have value in how awful it truly is!)

Too many writers? While the whole RiffTrax team took a stab at writing jokes for The Room, their humor flows very well from joke to joke. It never feels like there’s too many writers involved.

Recommended if you like: Making fun on movies. (And really, who doesn’t?)

Better than I expected? I managed to keep from vomiting in my mouth upon my re-watch of The Room.

Worse than I hoped? Watching the RiffTrax crew work their magic on The Room…still requires watching The Room.

Verdict: The RiffTrax guys do a great job keeping me entertained, and although I still believe The Room is an utterly terrible movie, watching it RiffTrax style is OK.

Related Reading: My original review of The Room.

Westworld interview with RiffTrax’s Bill Corbett.

RiffTrax Live! is having an encore screening of The Room live May 12.