Just saw this yesterday in a theater. Apparently, there are a lot of objections from people who knew DFW that it is not really accurate (and also that he would have objected to the very idea of a movie about him). But you know what? I don't care. This is a great little movie with a great script and a great performance from Jason Segel. At the end of the day, it is still about DFW and captures at least a part of what was unique about him. I don't buy into the deification of DFW that seems to have taken place since his death. I think it is extreme and I feel a little embarrassed for those participating. However, I do think he was a highly intelligent, articulate guy whose take on nearly anything was guaranteed to be at least interesting, even if you didn't agree with it. Likewise, this movie is always interesting even though to those who knew him it may not be an accurate or complete depiction of the real person. I would summarize it as being similar to "My Dinner with Andre", but focusing on one guy's struggle with fame and the writing profession. If you like that type of movie you should find this one very compelling.

In 1996 at the pinnacle of his career, renowned author David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) agreed to a multi-day interview with Rolling Stone journalist David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg), during the final leg of his press tour promoting philosophical tomb, Infinite Jest. With praises being heaped on him, including assertions the novel was one of the great works of the 20th century, Wallace had become acutely aware of his own burgeoning celebrity. It made him skittish. That the interview was agreed to at all seems like a miracle. But thankfully it was agreed to, because now nearly 20 years later we have James Ponsoldt's The End of the Tour, a moving, intimate examination of loneliness, fame, and male ego delivered through two incredible lead performances.

Basically a two-hander (although there are some solid supporting turns, too), the film takes place over the course of a road trip from snowy Bloomington, Illinois to St. Paul, Minnesota. Lipsky, an author who had completed his novel The Art Fair, became fascinated with Wallace's Infinite Jest and pushed for the story over editorial objections. In reality, the piece never ran for various reasons, and Lipsky took the pages of conversational notes and wrote his own book on the experience with Wallace. The story begins in 2008 as Lipsky has just learned of Wallace's suicide, and the way he chose to deal with the shock was listening to their hours of conversation, captured on cassette.

In essence one long discussion between two neurotic, brilliant, complex, and flawed men, The End of the Tour bristles with tension due to their competing agendas. It's fascinating to watch how they use words as against and for one another, to attack and parry in an endless swordfight for dominance.Read more ›

As a long time fan of DFW's work I admit openly to having some reservations about this project, in particular with Jason (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) Segal being slated for the lead-role. But as it turns out all this apprehensiveness was pure and simple nonsense. Segal’s performance is about as dead on as dead on gets. He captures all the tics and obsessive, self-conscious neuroses that made Wallace such a poignant and idiosyncratic character—so perfectly---and its easy to see his admiration for Wallace through this performance. It's honest, sensitive, and it's brilliant. The film's structure is minimal in a Richard Linklater, Before Sunrise, sort of way, centered around long and winding conversations that vary in topic from deep philosophical insight to minute scraps of fun pop culture refs (who knew Dave had such a boner for Alanis Morrisette?)

The movie has an warm, almost dare-I-say homoerotic, intimacy and can be looked at as a sort of testament to the art of growing through conversation. The film is also a statement on the maddening anxieties of fame. We all know that fame's not really what it's meant to be, yet why do we all still want it so badly? Of course the answer is love, and that huge cultural lack of it. Where is the love indeed. It’s ironic that something so pined and envied for in our culture can also work as a tool in aid of a someone's own self-destruction, and not to mention it's a bit tragic and sad. But here David Foster Wallace is not treated as a tragic figure. He’s a fully fleshed, funny, deeply wounded, supremely imperfect, but also genius, human-being. And that I believe is the film’s true triumph, a triumph that’s definitely worth witnessing. I knew in the first 10 minutes that I would see this film again, and I have seen it--again and again.

"The End of the Tour (2015 release; 106 min.) brings the true story of the 5 days that Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky (played by Jesse Eisenberg) hangs out with writer David Foster Wallace (played by Jason Segel) back in 1996. As the movie opens, we her an announcement that Wallace has committed suicide in 2008, and Lipsky is asked to provide a testimonial on NPR. We then see him drifting to "12 Years Earlier", when Wallace's book "Infinite Jest" is just released to universal acclaim. Lipsky wants to do a story on Wallace, and asks his editor: "do you know how many writers Rolling Stone has interviewed in the last 10 years? none!", and the editor agrees to let him do the piece. Off to Illinois goes Lipsky. To tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the latest movie by up-and-coming director James Ponsoldt, who previously brought us the outstanding indies "Smashed" and "The Spectecular Now". This guy is going places in a hurry. The movie's script is based on Lipsky's 2010 memoir "Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself", itself published to critical acclaim. As to the movie, I was tempted to reference it as an "action of the intellect" movie in the title of this review but then I wondered if it would be too confusing or, worse, off-putting. But in the end, this movie is for all practical purposes the same as, say, Jurassic World or the latest Mission Impossible action movie, but in this case all of the action happens in the brain. Wallace and Lipsky pretty quickly get into all kinds of in-depths conversations about love, loneliness, fame, writing, basically life itself. And yes there is humor too (the bits about Alanis Morissette are hilarious, remember this is set in 1996).Read more ›