“This charming and sensitive film about a five-day encounter between acclaimed late author David Foster Wallace and a Rolling Stone journalist is a transfixing human drama.” — Anthony Kaufman, Screendaily
It is as fine and rich a film about writing as a vocation as I’ve ever seen.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2015
The End of the Tour 2015
“This love song to the art of conversation is about a Rolling Stone journalist, David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) who is infatuated with the novelist David Foster Wallace’s gargantuan novel Infinite Jest and begs for the opportunity to profile the author, who is about to leave his snowbound rural home in Illinois for a five-day book tour to Minneapolis.
Wallace, played as a shambling, reflective, moody, acutely self-aware and rigorously honest lost soul by Jason Segel, immediately impresses Lipsky with his utter lack of pretense, his fondness for his dogs and his appreciation (very much shared by Lipsky) for junk food and Pepsi. Lipsky serves as an acolyte, a sounding board and a friend, and yet Wallace, himself an experienced journalist, is suspicious of his interlocutor’s motives.” — Kyle Smith, NY Post
“Two writers bonding over work, their self-awareness and how their efforts are perceived can only sustain an audience of non-authors so far, but The End of the Tour understands the necessity to communicate universal truths. Based on Lipsky’s memoir, this adaptation by Donald Margulies (director James Pondsoldt’s college professor) is extremely alive, tapping into shared fears, worries and philosophies with an authentic and familiar immediacy that feels like it was transcribed as it happened in the moment…
The movie’s look at isolation, confidence and connection reverberates deeply… Intimate, soul-baring, and winning, The End of the Tour is a special, lovely little gem.” — Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist