You Are Tearing Me Apart, Lisa!

The Year's Work on The Room, the Worst Movie Ever Made

Author: Adam M. Rosen, Landon Palmer, Nathan Abrams, Lenika Cruz, James Curnow, John Donegan, John Dyck, Ernest Mathijs, Matt Foy and Keith Kahn-Harris Series: The Year's Work: Studies in Fan Culture and Cultural Theory

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Description

When released in 2003, The Room, an obscure, self-financed relationship drama by an eccentric self-taught filmmaker named Tommy Wiseau, should have been completely forgotten. Yet nearly two decades later, "the worst movie ever made"-as many a critic would have it-has become the most popular cult film since The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

In You Are Tearing Me Apart, Lisa!, contributors explore this priceless cultural artifact, offering fans and film buffs critical insight into the movie's various meanings, historical context, and place in the cult canon. Even if by complete accident, The Room touches on many issues of modern concern, including sincerity, authenticity, badness, artistic value, gender relations, Americanness, Hollywood conventions, masculinity, and even the meaning of life.

Revealing the timeless, infamous power of Wiseau's The Room, You Are Tearing Me Apart, Lisa! is a deeply entertaining deconstruction of an original work of all-American failure.

Critic Reviews

“"We enjoy laughing at The Room , but to stop there would reflect poorly on us as an audience. Something so singular and immense deserves loving attention and careful study, and that's what we find in this rich and delightful collection of essays."--Matthew Strohl, author of Why It's OK to Love Bad Movies, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Montana "As a collection of essays curated and presented by an overarching and framing editorial voice, You Are Tearing Me Apart, Lisa! is eclectic, perceptive, unified, and entertaining in its multiple perspectives on a truly singular film text which has enjoyed a truly singular reception, both in its enjoyment and appropriation by audiences."--Kevin Heffernan, author of Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold "Each of the contributions to this thoughtful, enlightening, and entertaining book demonstrate just how productive it can be to examine the worst as well as the best of cinema."--Guy Barefoot, author of Trash Cinema: The Lure of the Low”

We enjoy laughing at The Room, but to stop there would reflect poorly on us as an audience. Something so singular and immense deserves loving attention and careful study, and that's what we find in this rich and delightful collection of essays.

- Matthew Strohl, author of Why It's OK to Love Bad Movies, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Montana

About the Author

Adam M. Rosen is a freelance book editor and writer in Asheville, North Carolina, and a former associate editor in the reference division of Oxford University Press. He has contributed to TheAtlantic.com, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Baltimore Sun, The Onion, and many other print and online outlets.

More on this Book

When released in 2003, The Room , an obscure, self-financed relationship drama by Tommy Wiseau, should have been forgotten. And yet it has since become a cult classic, despite being crowned "the worst movie ever made" by many a critic. In You Are Tearing Me Apart, Lisa!, contributors explore this priceless cultural artifact, offering fans and film buffs critical insight into the movie's various meanings, historical context, and place in the cult canon. Even if by complete accident, The Room touches on many issues of modern concern, including sincerity, authenticity, badness, artistic value, gender relations, Americanness, Hollywood conventions, masculinity, and even the meaning of life. Revealing the timeless power of Wiseau's The Room , You Are Tearing Me Apart, Lisa! is a deeply entertaining deconstruction of an original work of all-American failure.