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c/bad-movie-night•the_juliathe_julia•1mo ago

I used to defend The Room as 'so bad it's good' until a screening in Portland last month changed my mind

Watching it with a crowd that was dead silent except for one guy crying changed my whole take on it. Now I think we were just being mean to Tommy Wiseau, not having fun - anyone else ever feel guilty after a bad movie night?
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evanr79
evanr791mo ago
That screening you describe sounds rough. I saw The Room at a midnight show in Chicago back in 2018 and the crowd was laughing all the way through, but I remember this one guy near me who just sat there stone faced the whole time. It made me wonder if we were all just piling on a dude who clearly poured everything he had into this weird passion project. Your mileage may vary, but I think there's a difference between laughing at a movie that's genuinely trying to be serious versus mocking the person behind it.
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theas94
theas941mo ago
The one guy I sat next to at a screening of Troll 2 in Seattle spent the whole movie trying to explain the plot to his girlfriend, which honestly made it funnier for me (and probably worse for her). I get what you mean about that stone faced guy though, it can feel like we're bullying the movie instead of just enjoying the disaster. My own track record with "so bad its good" movies is mostly just me saying "wait, that made no sense" at the screen, so I'm probably the jerk in that scenario.
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susan_ward
susan_ward13d ago
@evanr79 you make a good point, but to you and @theas94, where do you draw the line between laughing with the movie and just being cruel?
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