BSA 206 S1W12 : Bad Directors

We looked at Bad Directors this week:

- Tommy Wiseau

Tommy is the king of so bad it's good, having only really made one movie: The Room. It was so bad and such a waste of money that it has gained legendary status and is still screened, with a dedicated fan-base who have even created rituals that they carry out while laughing at the film (like throwing spoons at the screen).



James Franco and some of his regular collaborators recently made a biopic about Tommy called The Disaster Artist based on a novel written by Tommy's co-star. I think what is so interesting about this situation is that Franco makes a lot of forgettable movies and yet when he makes one of The Room it manages to gain universal attention. Sometimes it's better to make a really bad movie than a host of mediocre ones.

Having said that The Disaster Artist is not a bad movie, it's actually quite good.



- Edward D. Wood Jr.

Wood is considered the worst director of all time, working in the fifties, considered himself the same as Orson Welles (a triple threat of writer, director and actor - unfortunately he was terrible at all three, so more like a triple threat of awful).

He made low budget b-movies and would often wear drag.

 

Plan 9 from Outer Space is a cult classic now for its poor quality, and Glen or Glenda used its risque subject matter as a way to try and coax people out of their pocket money.

I have seen Tim Burton's movie based on his life, which I ironically think is one of Burton's best films:



We also watched Ed Wood in class, I guess there isn't a lot of good movies made about bad directors and we still need to learn something. Well there is The Disaster Artist as well I guess.



The cool thing about Ed Wood is that its made in a way that it represent the time period the main character lived in and the movies made therein, more specifically making multiple nods to the movies he made himself. Taken alone these scenes can be very cheesy and possibly even be considered bad themselves, but the movie does this deliberately and with such precision that it never sinks to the same depths as those movies its referencing.

Ed Wood achieves the same thing that the Disaster Artist does, in making us sympathize for the protagonist. Ed Wood is more in love with its subject than even Disaster Artist though, that film showed the bad side of Tommy as well, while not putting it completely in the spotlight, it was touched upon enough that one walks away seeing him as much in a negative light as in a positive. Ed Wood is all pros and no cons for the world's so called worst director. That's not a bad thing though, its a celebration of him and does a good job at that.

- Neil Breen

Breen is a legend in the making, director, writer and main actor of some of the worst movies ever. One thing that stands out with these bad directors is that they seem to be the negative extension of auteur theory. If there are greats like Orson Welles then its logical there should be equals in the opposite direction.



In class we touched upon the novel by famed critic Roger Ebert "Your Movie Sucks", this channel shares the same and I think is equally as entertaining, he made a very informative movie of the supreme Breen:



This guy is the closest modern re-incarnation of Tommy or Ed Wood, just working with even less resources than they did. The films I use as examples below don't really feel the same as these other examples' work, but Breen's sure does. Maybe being even worse.

We were asked to give some examples of bad movies that are skewed so far into the bad that its' good:

Speed Racer



I really liked Speed Racer, the score is good and it has some heart. It's a movie with good ideas and moments where it shows it could be great but the directors made so many poor choices and its just so ugly. The cheesy tone only works half the time, meaning many scenes fall through the floor.

We grew up with the old anime show in part, and when this came out I was excited to see it: I mean it's the Wachowskis and looks like a rare faithful adaptation, and yet as a kid I absolutely hated it. Couldn't sit through it and pretty sure I fell asleep.

It was only later in my life, upon revisiting the disaster that I found it was actually pretty entertaining and experimental. It's not a good movie by any stretch, but as a guilty pleasure I enjoy it. The ridiculousness that encapsulates every aspect of this film makes it quite funny to watch.



Looking at the clips I don't even know if this counts, it's very creative and kinda well done, I think I need to watch it again.

The Happening



A movie I was surprised no one mentioned was The Happening, which is so bad it almost acts as a parody of Shyamalan's own work. A joy to watch though.



Again its like well done in a bad way. I don't know I kinda love it looking at the clips.

The thing these two movies share that puts them very far apart from the top examples is that they are both from once critically acclaimed directors.