Part of the magic for me is that for years after its release it was so weird and mysterious. Was Tommy Wiseau in on the joke? Who the hell is this guy, where is he from, and where did he get the money to finance this? I don’t normally care about so-bad-they’re-good movies, but The Room is such a treat.

I had the same thought. How were they calling it a bomb after like 5 days? Keep it in theaters long enough for word-of-mouth to spread and things would be different.

OP wasn’t arguing that Italian-American culture necessarily resembles Italian culture. Of course they’re different. You’re implying that the concept of “Italian-American culture” is superficial or illegitimate because it differs from the way that Europeans talk about international or intergenerational identities, and that’s some prescriptivist bullshit. “Genuine cultural identity”? Get out of here.