March may be cold, but it's hot and heavy here at OnMilwaukee.com as we celebrate our first-ever Sex Week. We're taking a mature look at local video and sex toy shops, area strip clubs, sexy Milwaukee events -- and even some connections between Brew City and Playboy magazine. It's serious, responsible, adult-themed content -- but don't worry, parents, we'll keep it PG-13 in case junior stumbles upon these stories as OnMilwaukee.com turns a pale shade of blue for seven days.
Move over "Rocky Horror," there is a new overly dramatic, sexually bizarro film on the rise.
But whereas "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is an intentional parody, "The Room" is merely accidentally sardonic and is a comedy ipso facto.
But that's not what writer, producer, director and lead actor Tommy Wiseau would have you believe. Well, not now anyway. He reportedly spent over $6 million on the 2003 film's production and marketing only to have audiences literally laugh at him.
As it turns out, the movie was a cinematic disaster. It takes the classic love triangle scenario -- a troubled man's fiancé is cheating on him with his best friend -- and executes it in a most unusual way, with just about every aspect of the film -- sequence, timing, plot, acting -- going terribly awry.
The final product was so bad that audiences found it nothing short of hysterical, and word spread like wildfire. It's since developed a cult following and even has regular monthly midnight screenings at the Sunset 5 Theater in Los Angeles when people show up dressed as characters and bring quirky props.
Now, of course, Wiseau says that was his intention all along and is rebranding "The Room" as a black comedy. Sure, buddy. He's even started showing up at the screenings to sell merch to the film's fans.
The reason this film makes the Sex Week cinema cut is thanks to its ridiculously awkward and extensive sex scenes between protagonist Johnny (Wiseau) and his wife-to-be Lisa (Juliette Danielle) as well as between Lisa and her lover / Johnny's bff Mark (Greg Sestero).
The movie is a melodrama and the borderline terrible music only adds to the glory of it all.
"The Room" was released on DVD in 2005, but it's relatively difficult to find at rental places. Your best bet is so scour the Internet, or head to L.A. for a midnight screening. Be sure to bring some plastic spoons and a football. Trust us.
OnMilwaukee.com staff writer Julie Lawrence grew up in Wauwatosa and has lived her whole life in the Milwaukee area.
As any “word nerd” can attest, you never know when inspiration will strike, so from a very early age Julie has rarely been seen sans pen and little notebook. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee it seemed only natural that she major in journalism. When OnMilwaukee.com offered her an avenue to combine her writing and the city she knows and loves in late 2004, she knew it was meant to be. Around the office, she answers to a plethora of nicknames, including “Lar,” (short for “Larry,” which is short for “Lawrence”) as well as the mysteriously-sourced “Bill Murray.”
