The Howling Fantods

David Foster Wallace News and Resources Since March 97

  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size
Home News by Category General Updates End of the Tour - Positive Buzz from Sundance

End of the Tour - Positive Buzz from Sundance

UPDATE: List of all online reviews here.

Super positive buzz and early reviews popping up after James Ponsoldt’s adaptation of David Lipsky's interview with David Foster Wallace, The End of the Tour, screened at Sundance [Previously].

-David Rooney's review for The Hollywood Reporter encapsulates this well:

[...]
The same compassionate observation of human imperfections that distinguished Ponsoldt’s films Smashed and The Spectacular Now makes him an ideal interpreter of this material, while playwright Donald Margulies’ thoughtful screenplay brings tremendous insight into the way writers’ minds work. This is no conventional biodrama about the tortured artist, but very much the film that lovers of Wallace’s dazzlingly perspicacious fiction and essays would want.
[...]

Read the rest of the review here.

 

-For Bustle Anna Klassen spoke to Jason Segel on the red carpet about his role in the film, 'The End of the Tour' Star Jason Segel Opens Up About Playing David Foster Wallace At Sundance Film Festival 2015:

[...]
The film, which I can proclaim with great joy, is a tremendous success. Segel’s portrayal of Wallace is so captivating, I kept begging for a rewind button. Every syllable uttered more truthful than the last, Segel regurgitated the icon, and his particularly fluid way of discourse in a believable and completely earnest manner.  
“I tried to make the character as accurate as possible given the information I had available to me,” Segel said. “I tried to play the character with a lot of love. Performing is all about honesty, so it was very exciting for me to do this movie.”

When I asked Segel if tackling this role had any influence on his perception of journalists, he admitted it only created more of a hesitance. “Well my character, as David Foster Wallace was on the other side of the journalist dynamic, so no, it didn’t create sympathy,” he said. “It was a cautionary tale for me. I learned that there is a very universal human moment that happens around your early thirties where you start to realize that the things you are told to put your values in, aren't going to make you happy. That was what the movie really explored for me.”
[...]

Read the rest of the interview here.


Updates:

-Daniel Fienberg's review for HitFix, Review: 'The End of the Tour' sees Jason Segel do right by David Foster Wallace:

[...]
Ponsoldt's restraint is in keeping with the scale of this story, but  I'm going to need a few more days (or weeks or months) to chew on whether the story ends on a note of emotional profundity or reportorial gamesmanship. But thanks to Margulies and Ponsoldt and thanks to Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg, "End of the Tour" mostly does right by David Foster Wallace, a not insignificant feat when you're dealing with a figure who generates such passion.
[...]

Read the rest of the review here.

 

-Scott Macaulay's interview for Film Maker, Director James Ponsoldt on his David Foster Wallace Drama, The End of the Tour:

[...]
[The End of the Tour] is also a story about meeting someone you’ve admired from a distance, so in that regard it’s an unrequited love story. It’s about meeting that person who you’ve built up, whether it’s an artist or an estranged family member — someone who has taken on an entire constellation of emotion and meaning to you, and who, at the end of the day, is a total stranger. And who, when you do find yourself in their proximity for some time, [your] relationship [with them] is complicated by their own messy humanity.
[...]

Read the rest of the interview here.


I'm using twitter to share numerous brief thoughts and impressions, so you might want to check out my stream via @nick_maniatis

If you've seen the film consider adding thoughts to the comments below. Anyone out there want to write a review for me if you manage to see it this weekend? Let me know.

 

Share
Last Updated on Sunday, 25 January 2015 18:52  

The Howling Fantods