Film of the Week: The Disaster Artist

James Franco is a patchy director at best, but here he’s found a story that ideally combines his gifts as an actor with his taste for the goofy and off-kilter. He’s in the lead as Tommy Wiseau, an enigmatic real-life filmmaker who looks like an evil Christopher Walken and talks like a friendly Dracula. Bear in mind that in 2003 Franco made The Room, a film so poorly crafted it loops round and becomes a strange work of outsider art that’s at once both hilarious and a look into a troubled soul. Here, though, the feel of his friendship with actor and co-producer Greg Sestero is familiar to the bromances Franco has done with Judd Apatow, but the exploration of just what makes Tommy tick, and his determination to be a star no matter what, is oddly sweet. Most importantly, Franco nails Wiseau’s odd demeanour, giving maybe his best performance playing someone who can’t act whatsoever. Times & trailer