SEGEL STARS AS FAMED AUTHOR
‘THE END OF THE TOUR’ TRAILER REVIEW BY METRO CREW
The End of the Tour is based on Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself by journalist David Lipsky, which chronicles the days he spent alongside author David Foster Wallace on the last leg of his Infinite Jest tour in 1996. Along the way, the two writers form a bond as they discuss everything from success and ambition to TV and junk food. Wallace, who committed suicide in 2008, frequently is hailed as the best writer of his generation. So we’re wondering why a trailer for a film about him seems to almost conceal that he’s the subject. The End of the Tour opens at Kahala Theatre Aug. 21.
NICOLE: I was so bored watching this! The credits were saying “insightful” and “intimate.” What about this trailer was either of those things? What’s so amazing about it?
JAIMIE: I would like to see this movie. However, the plot does feel a little familiar to me. Almost Famous, anyone?
JAMES: I wasn’t sure who this movie was about, so I Googled and learned that it’s about David Foster Wallace, as interviewed by Rolling Stone writer David Lipsky. This takes place after the publication of Infinite Jest, a 1,000-page novel that helped define a new genre of fiction called hysterical realism.
JAIMIE: Huh, I had NO idea it was about David Foster Wallace. I thought it was just a random, original movie. Way to go, trailer.
NICOLE: I agree with Jaimie. The trailer did a poor job of reflecting what the story was really about.
PAIGE: The key in this film, from that writerly perspective, is to watch how Wallace is crafting his narrative of himself, as the reporter is crafting his own version of Wallace, with both of them also stuck in the film’s narrative of both of them. Lots of layers to unpack.
CHRISTINA: I have been hearing about this movie for a while, so I knew it was about David Foster Wallace, but I can completely see the confusion now — they really should have made that more clear.
JAMES: It seems like the marketing team didn’t believe in the film’s subject matter as a selling point. Everything about DFW is played down.
CHRISTINA: Although Jason Segel looks like pretty much every photo I have ever seen of David Foster Wallace, all I see is Jason Segel. I am not sure that I can buy him playing David Foster Wallace. From this trailer, he looks good — and I’ve been reading reviews that say he does great — but Jason Segel is usually just way too goofy.
JAIMIE: WHY is Jesse Eisenberg everywhere right now? I still can’t bring myself to appreciate him.
PAIGE: I think he should play a serial killer! He’d be good at that.
JAIMIE: (His face) is very punchable. His eyes also are always so squinty — indoors, outdoors, it doesn’t matter.
CHRISTINA: I like Jesse Eisenberg — he usually gives a solid performance, but I think he really excels at playing a douche bag. Not sure that this is the case here with him playing David Lipsky, but douche bag seems to be his strongest niche.
JAMES: Eisenberg is a likable actor, in that you like to hate him. He’s good at being disdainfully detached or passively perplexed by humanity — never quite attuned to it. Segel is good at projecting vulnerability, but that vulnerability has never been tested. So these roles kind of demand some new notes from these players.
