We can’t talk about Greg Sestero without addressing the elephant that is The Room. The film has been noted down in history as one of the worst in cinema history. Directed by Tommy Wiseau, The Room is a complete car crash. Every aspect – the script, acting, camerawork etc, are all dire. Yet in spite of that, somehow The Room has found a very dedicated and devoted cult audience. It proved to be such a phenomenon that it even got its own biopic in the form of James Franco’s The Disaster Artist. The framework for Franco’s film came from the book of the same name, a book written by the star of The Room, and friend of Tommy, Greg Sestero. An actor by trade, Sestero has now decided to follow in Wiseau’s footsteps and take a turn as writer and director with his debut feature Miracle Valley.
Those that have always blamed Wiseau and his bullish nature on the failure of The Room, with Greg a victim caught in the crosshairs, might need to rethink their stance in light of viewing Miracle Valley. The film is a mess, and not in a ‘so bad it will spark a cult’ kind of way. Not content to just write and direct, Sestero once again goes the Tommy route, and also acts in Miracle Valley. Sestero’s acting wasn’t exactly fire in The Room and in Miracle Valley he continues the same blank performance that made his alter ego Mark so iconic. For The Room you could tell that he was phoning in his lines, the issue here is that Sestero is clearly trying to emote, although he appears to have gone to the Nicolas Cage school of overacting. His character of David is openly reprehensible, happily chatting to his best friend about how he wants to dump his girlfriend Sarah (Angela Mariano), before then bedding that same friend’s partner. David is positioned as the lead, and with his actions being so deplorable, the audience doesn’t really invest or care about him, and instead yearns for his demise.
The Disaster Artist is a well written book, Sestero seemingly exorcising his demons on the page as he recounted his friendship with Tommy Wiseau as well as the disastrous filming of The Room. The writing on display within Miracle Valley however, is awful. Somehow almost every word out of every character’s mouth sounds wrong, Sestero appears to have completely ignored how people actually speak and interact with one another in favour of delivering clunky snippets of information. An early car ride with David and Sarah establishes them as characters through the extensive use of terribly executed exposition. Essentially, every time David opens his mouth he explains away a key part of the plot. Yes, it catches the viewer up quickly, but it’s shameful, bordering on embarrassingly obvious that David is spurting the information for the viewer alone. Worse still, everything David says could easily be inferred by the audience were they given the chance as the plot isn’t that complex. These are all errors that could have been easily corrected; their inclusion here just feels lazy. Lines such as, “they took my girlfriend, killed my friends, and I lost my camera”, when acted without any discernible emotion or tone, lands like dead weights and triggers, “The doctor says I definitely have breast cancer” line from The Room level PTSD.
From an audio and visual standpoint, Sestero betters Wiseau’s work in The Room. That’s not exactly saying a great deal, but Miracle Valley does manage to look like an actual film, something that the other movie failed to pull off. There are some interesting locations utilised and the desert setting offers an interesting backdrop to both day and night scenes. The score is a competent arrangement of piano driven music laced with moody strings, and is the only component to make any attempt at adding atmosphere. Nonetheless, this atmosphere is unfortunately squandered as soon as a character opens their mouth to deliver yet more clumsy dialogue.
After all these years at Tommy’s side, it seems that Sestero has finally drunk the kool-aid, and in doing so becomes Tommy Wiseau 2.0. It’s a massive shame as members of Team Greg have spent years waiting for him to disentangle himself from Tommy and splinter off to create something that will reward him with the positivity he deserves. Miracle Valley however, is not that project. The film plays as an attempt to capture the insanity of something like Mandy, but the result is something that aligns far too close to The Room for Sestero to step out of Tommy’s shadow just yet.
Miracle Valley
Summary
An unfortunate showcase in how not to construct characters or plot, Miracle Valley goes far too heavy on the exposition, foregoing both actual story and character development. Bewilderingly dull, watching Miracle Valley will leave you actively wishing for Sestero and Wiseau to reunite and create The Room 2, Best Fiends 3, or some other similar madness.
Miracle Valley was reviewed at Arrow Video FrightFest.
