Shortly after the 1996 publication of Infinite Jest, author David Foster Wallace's 1,000-plus-page postmodern magnum opus, Rolling Stone sent journalist and novelist David Lipsky to interview him at the Illinois State University and a signing event in Minneapolis. Though the profile never saw publication in the magazine, David and David spent five winter days exploring and testing one another, and Lipsky turned his tape recording of the often humorous, at times intense conversation into a bestselling memoir, Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, shortly after Wallace's suicide twelve years after their original trip. And now it is a film with Jesse Eisenberg playing Lipsky in his usual charismatic-nail-biting way and comic star Jason Segel expertly utilizing his usual presence—an imposing build complicated by a cordial, relaxed, even stoned demeanor—as Wallace. He reveals hitherto-underestimated depth and sensitivity as a performer here.

The End of the Tour, far more to its credit than not, refuses to position itself as the final statement on the enigmatic genius of David Foster Wallace and Infinite Jest. Its central purpose is more specific: it is a depiction of a competent and smart man intrigued by, drawn toward, and resentful of a Great Artist he knows he can never match, almost playing as a muted and deeply melancholy contemporary variation on Amadeus, one unfolding on snow-swept country roads and in fast-food restaurants. Hamburgers are eaten. Cigarettes are smoked. Complex, winding conversations ensue regarding privilege, sex, suicide, television, and more. Buoyed by its committed stars, humane humor, and clearly genuine fascination with a rather arcane realm of literary promotion and journalist-subject intimacy, this is a quiet, absorbing triumph.

A-

Both actors do a fine job and the dialogue heavy scenes do work but I also feel like the film may have held back a little bit particularly during the more controversial topics.