Working from a script that adapts “The Disaster Artist” for its goofy moments and less for its heart or perspective, the story grabs select tidbits from the real-life sets, creating can’t-believe-it’s-true comedy, with recognizable faces (Seth Rogen, Paul Scheer, Jacki Weaver, Josh Hutcherson, Ari Graynor, Nathan Fielder) placed in the vision of Wiseau through Franco’s recreation. And the second half of the movie is funny in large part because “The Room” is funny. So, it’s a special boost when actors come in playing ridiculous characters, and offers the most inspired bits. Casting Nathan Fielder to play the stuffy psychologist Peter, or watching Jacki Weaver saying the famous line, “I got the results of the test back. I definitely have breast cancer.” There are guaranteed laughs just in seeing who plays who, like with Josh Hutcherson having that floppy-parted hair of Denny.

It’s easy to see why Franco would be attracted to the project. They are both artists without borders, directors who lead with ambition before they lead with reason. It’s all the more disappointing to see that the movie has little perspective of its own aside from Franco inserting Wiseau’s filmmaking into the Franco kaleidoscope. There is a lacking critical quality to the story as it goes along, touching upon the film’s many idiosyncrasies but leaving them alone. When Tommy’s misogyny is on display during a scene of filming—laughing about a woman getting beat up and sent to the hospital, despite being told over multiple takes not to—"The Disaster Artist” doesn’t question what’s underneath it. And yet when the movie does want to analyze “The Room,” it’s one of many cringing, on-the-nose moments where a funny person is delegated with spoon-feeding the audience (in this case it’s the usually hilarious June Diane Raphael).

Franco the Actor prevails more than Franco the Director. In front of the camera, he has the voice, that strange amalgam accent that sounds sometimes like just airy ditzy-ness. At times, his stoic face can be heartbreaking, lost in this valley of being both self-conscious and completely not aware of himself at the same time. But Franco the storyteller fails this character by taking the easy way out. Segments are played specifically to laugh about his accent, or that he doesn’t remember his lines, without going deeper into where that stubbornness comes from.