Event

THE ROOM with TOMMY WISEAU

Tommy Wiseau, the Man with the passion of Tennessee Williams comes to the Plaza Theatre to present his masterpiece THE ROOM in person!

The film's so-bad-it's-freakin'-awesome vibe has attracted a devout army of aficionados whose membership includes the cream of Hollywood's comedy community. Role Models star Paul Rudd and Arrested Development's David Cross are both fans, as is Jonah Hill, who uses a still from the movie as his MySpace photograph. Heroes star Kristen Bell hosts Room-viewing parties at her house and last year attended the film's monthly Laemmle screening with Rudd, Hill, and Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright. ''There is a magic about that film that is indescribable,'' she says.

The Room has even infiltrated the halls of cinematic academia. ''It is one of the most important films of the past decade,'' says Ross Morin, an assistant professor of film studies at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. ''It exposes the fabricated nature of Hollywood. The Room is the Citizen Kane of bad movies.''

If The Room is the Citizen Kane of bad movies, that makes Tommy Wiseau the Orson Welles of crap. who speaks with a thick, Schwarzeneggerian accent- directed, wrote, and produced the film. The muscled auteur also plays the cuckolded Johnny, and, when not exposing his ivory rump in the film's sex scenes, gives a performance that's both heartfelt and berserk. In one scene, a vein-poppingly distraught Wiseau howls the line, ''You are tearing me apart, Lisa!'' The moment- a favorite of Room fans - is reminiscent of both James Dean's ''You're tearing me apart!'' howl in Rebel Without A Cause and Marlon Brando screaming ''Stella!'' in A Streetcar Named Desire. At least it would be, if those actors had chosen to play their parts as deranged Austrians. (Entertainment Weekly)