Thursday, January 7, 2016

The End of the Tour

Based on the memoir Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself in which David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) recounts his experiences meeting and interviewing David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) at the end of the author's book tour for Infinite Jest, The End of the Tour is character-driven piece centered around the conversations between the two authors twelve years before Wallace's suicide. Smart, insecure, and low-key (all which could also be used to describe Segel's character), director James Ponsoldt's take on the memoir allows us to see both men at their best and worst (often brought out by their own fears and each other) over a condensed period of time.

Playing on themes of imperfection, ego, self-doubt, envy, and an undeniable need to connect and befriend someone else in your same specialized niche, Ponsoldt and his two stars deliver an engaging movie about nothing more than two writers talking about what they do and how they think.

Available on both Blu-ray and DVD, extras include a digital copy of the film, deleted scenes, a behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the movie, a look at the film's score with Danny Elfman, and commentary featuring Jason Segel, Ponsoldt, and screenwriter Donald Margulies.

[Lionsgate, Blu-ray $24.99 / DVD $19.98]

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