We've written before about The Room, Tommy Wiseau's epic masterpiece of awful filmmaking. And why not? There's nothing that quite so thoroughly scratches our itch for the excellently bizarre as a film, financed from unknown sources by an enigmatic liar who manages to turn $6 million into something that looks like a fully improvised homage to Blue Velvet.
If you, like us, are a full-blown convert to the Cult of You're Tearing Me Apart, Lisa, then you should approach Greg Sestero's The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, The Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made with enthusiastic caution. It's billed, after all, as "an inspiring tour de force that reads like a page-turning novel" – which is to say, a good book that probably contains actual information about The Room and its maker. And that could only spoil the fun, right?
That said, the book has received rave reviews and scads of prestigious awards. So if you're willing to risk your gleeful hatred of one man's klutzy passion by coming to see Tommy Wiseau as, you know, a human being with feelings, dive right in.
And there's no time like the present, since Sestero is coming to Tampa's best indie bookstore, Inkwood, to give a reading and meet his "fans." You'll get to ask him about his writing process, how he found an agent — oh, who are we kidding, you're going to ask him whether Wiseau is secretly a masterful performance art genius, and about how great The Room has been for his own flatlined acting career.
There will be complimentary drinks and book signing for those who purchase the book at Inkwood – and there's a threat of spoons and footballs in the air.
The free event will be at Inkwood Books, 216 South Armenia in Tampa, from 5 to 7 p.m. on Fri., April 24. Visit inkwoodbooks.com for more info.
This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2015.