“He wants something better than he has…I want precisely what he has already…”
From the man who brought us THE SPECTACULAR NOW & SMASHED – David Ponsoldt – comes the real-life story of Rolling Stone Journalist David Lipsky, and his 5-day interview with famed prolific journalist David Foster Wallace as he wraps up his book tour promoting his 1000 page novel “infinite Jest” ~ So, lets venture to THE END OF THE TOUR…
The year is 1996, as we meet Rolling Stone Journalist David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) who has been tasked with interviewing renowned writer and creator David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel).
Like with most first encounters ~ this particular introduction isn’t going quite as smoothly as Lipsky had imagined. Hoping to gain the notoriety that Wallace has garnered with his “MASTERPIECE” novel, Lipsky follows Wallace around through the closing days of his whirl-wind book tour…hoping that his own work regarding the man~ the legend ~ will garner Lipsky too, an award winning story.
From bedding down at Wallace’s home, to inhabiting a hotel or two along side “the famed journalist”, Lipsky comes to find that much of what he assumed about Wallace, may in fact be false. Once LIpskey achieves the unimaginable, getting Wallace to open up about himself, his work, and what makes him tick…Lipsky finds that there is much more to this enlightened man than meets the eye…
As THE DAVID’s try to amuse one another throughout their excursions, they find that they share a lot in common ~ both being journalists and all ~ and maybe not so much too….as the interview turns into a match of wits and a competition for one of them, as the other just can’t wait for the TORTURE of SHARING HIS LIFE with THE OUTSIDE WORLD to be over…
I give THE END OF THE TOUR 4 out of 5 stars / A MUST SEE ON THE BIG SCREEN!!! ~ I am usually not very fond of Segel, there is something about him that monumentally seems to bug me, but I must share that he was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING playing WALLACE. Eisenberg’s performance as Rolling Stone Journalist Lipsky was ROCK SOLID too, I was just hoping to see “A DIFFERENT CHARACTER” from him this time around, but, it just didn’t happen. Eisenberg displays exactly what we have seen from him before in movie, after movie, after movie. Which isn’t BAD, I was just hoping for some additional dimension to his role. Seeing Joan Cusack and Ron Livingston on the BIG SCREEN again was very enjoyable too ~ each had a small role ~ but played them significantly in this film for the few lines they had. I also enjoyed the fact that this was a true story~ but one that had never been told ~ as the article never made it to the pages of Rolling Stone when it was all said and done. Of all of the releases this weekend, I say that THE END OF THE TOUR is definitely the FILM THAT YOU WANT TO SEE this weekend, even though it is in limited release!!!
Kathy Kaiser
MATINEE CHAT with Kathy Kaiser 