The Clubhouse Podcast

iTunes Exclusive Episode The End Of The Tour

January 7, 2018 Season 6, Episode 128

Rob, Chad, and Andrew review "The End of the Tour," director James Ponsoldt's film about a five-day interview between Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) and novelist David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) following the release of Wallace's book Infinite Jest. The hosts praise Segel's performance and the film's cinematography of Illinois and Minnesota winters, but debate whether the pacing drags and whether the ending feels unresolved.

About this episode

Key takeaways

  • Jason Segel's portrayal of David Foster Wallace was praised as a standout, showing a different range for the actor playing a reclusive, artsy character
  • The film's visual direction effectively captures the cold, wintry atmosphere of Illinois and Minnesota with strong cinematography
  • Eisenberg's understated performance may have been intentional to contrast with Segel's larger-than-life character, emphasizing Lipsky's admiration and desire to become like Wallace
  • Some hosts felt the pacing dragged and that the film could have benefited from cutting 5-10 minutes and including more resolution or historical context before the credits

Q&A

What is the film about?

It's based on a true story of a five-day interview that Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky conducted with novelist David Foster Wallace at the height of Wallace's popularity after releasing his book Infinite Jest, focusing on the unexpected bond that forms between them.

How did the hosts react to the performances?

They felt Jason Segel delivered an amazing, career-stretching performance, while Jesse Eisenberg was consistent but typecast. His understated approach may have been intentional to show Lipsky in awe of Wallace, though some felt it lacked chemistry.

What were the main criticisms?

The film felt drawn out in sections, the ending felt unresolved without key historical facts revealed, and it didn't pack the punch of similar films like Almost Famous or The Vampire Chronicles.

Read Transcript

The following is a sooner orgator production. The following is a sooner orgator production. The following is a sooner orgator production.

The following is a year of growing up and growing up and growing up. The following is a sooner orgator production. If you're hearing my voice, it means one of the following if not, all of the following criteria have been met.

Maybe at least once in your life you've listened to the Clubhouse podcast live every Sunday night, 70 turn four Pacific. You're one stop shop for all pink sports entertainment. But if you hear my voice it probably means you subscribe on iTunes because this time for another Antony's Explosion.

Welcome! My name is Rob. I am the executive producer of the Clubhouse podcast and I have recorded a conversation the time or two in my life.

All of them be known to the other personal course. But I am not alone for this particular episode are 126th one of these. Joining me across the desk is he tends to do from time to time as my co-host and a man that's done a tour or two.

But he did it as a member of the military. He is chat. Welcome sir.

We're recording a conversation right now. Pretty much. Let's take a look at my technical definition.

You're correct. Also right across the desk for me is the king of bowling and a man who's beard is currently on a tour and he's just along for the ride. He is Andrew Beckham.

Welcome sir. Thank you. And of course as always the fact the official fact checker of this show and a man who's about to go on a cross country tour here in just a few days.

You may know I was fun, don't go, but his mom and even I'm done for them and I come down for the book. I'm taking the show on tour. You know you're not.

Why not? You're going on too. You can take your shirt that's about as close as that quite normally when we do one of these is to review something in this particular episode is no different.

We are here. Oh, that's too much there. To review the new film from director James Ponsult.

You may know him as the director of the spectacular now. Very popular film. This is called the end of the tour.

starring Jason Seagull and Jesse Eisenberg. It is the true story of a five day interview that reporter David Lipsky played by Eisenberg when he was working for Rolling Stone did with novelist David Foster Wallace just pretty much at the height of his popularity as a book of his called Infinite Just is Released. Basically what you need to know, it's these two guys, it's a road movie.

I don't really want to go too deep into what it is because I think it's better for people to go in as cold as possible. Chad, let's start with you. What do you think of the way this story worked out?

The way it went. Oh gosh. Why you're thinking we got to think our best friends.

Oh we do, yes. Ashley and everybody ally. Thank you for inviting us to this thing.

Our best friends. They are so wonderful to us. Back to you.

It was one of those gosh. You kind of set the tone for not wanting to spoil too much, but it's kind of impossible not to spoil at least a little bit. An unexpected friendship that you see blossoming in front of you like this when initially you think it's just going to be about getting to know somebody for a piece that you were working on and it winds up developing and there's something much bigger than that.

Going into it though, I thought that Lipsky was kind of a fanboy. Yes, he was. He was.

You could tell he was kind of in awe of this guy and a little bit it's kind of one of those things where you could kind of tell that he wanted to be who he was because he was a strawberry writer, inspiring writer himself and novelists, but he was a writer. He's a reporter. Yeah, yeah.

But he wanted to get to the level of not just, I don't know if it was more he was in VSF's fame or in VSF's talent. Maybe a little bit above. Okay.

Do you think the story was told well? Yes, I did. Andrew.

It was told well. I didn't like I guess the way it ended but then again this this was a little too cerebral for the casual movie gore. Fair enough, I can see that.

Don. This is where I'm going to get really conflicted on this. If you go to my written review at the qualabas.com.

That is our website even though you forgot the WWE. It's easier if I don't really have like, but yeah, WWE, WWE, that's called it. You see why I left it off?

That's our website. There have been a lot of interview films as I kind of call it. You look at like, um, um, Cobb, almost famous.

It's where someone's doing an interview with somebody in that friendship starts to form and or a bond or whatever you want to call it and that's what kind of happened in this thing. It's the same genre. Those movies they hit it very, very well.

This one, I'm going to wait till my final review to say what I thought if they hit it out of the park on the side. Okay. Okay.

Because I want to spoil a little late. For me, the story itself, I liked it. I think it got a little drawn out in a few sections.

Um, I thought you probably could have knocked five or 10 minutes off of it and it wouldn't have affected the the overall story at all. But I liked it. I thought I was never bored.

I was always interested as to what was going on. A couple sections got, you know, there's a little uncomfortable in this here and there, but other than that, I thought, uh, Ponsils look for the film was pretty spot on. I mean, you really got the look of Illinois in Minnesota and in the winter time.

I mean, had some beautiful shots there, like that one morning wakes up and you see they're out. The cameras outside and you see them through that window and the house playing with the dogs and stuff like that was a beautiful, beautiful shot. I loved a lot of those niche shots in this film.

So for what the film was, I thought the look was really good for what it was and some beautiful scenery on this, I thought. Anybody have anything to add to the look of the film, the film, the film from a directorial standpoint? Definitely made you feel cold.

Yeah. I think I like cold. Cold is good for me.

It was, it had a, it had a cold dingy look to it. I don't guess that lets itself well to the settings of the film because it was the best part of the film. It's the winter in Illinois in Minnesota.

What, what do you think you're going to get? A lot of snow. You know, I want to stop at the Mary Tyler Moore statue and I just keep going, please drop off first Avenue.

Please drop first Avenue. But really the, the meat and potatoes of the, by personal review of this, which is located at www.theclubhousepodcast.com, which is our website, is the performances. And one of them absolutely knocked me out and the other one kind of sorted did I guess?

I thought Seagull was amazing in this. I mean, we're so used to seeing Jason Seagull play the lovable Oath character to see him play this kind of recluse, kind of artsy kind of guy was different and he did it well. Eisenberg for me, kind of on par.

He's the same guy. He's always been. But that doesn't mean it's a bad performance.

It just means he's starting to typecast. He's consistent and if nothing else. Outside of Seagull, of everyone else was just to me, just a minor character.

That's how they were, I guess, but that's how the strip was written. No one else really had to have to stand out for performance. Outside of Seagull.

Yeah, I mean, it's a two-man vehicle. No pun intended. But, I mean, but I thought they both played together well.

I thought the chemistry there was good. I just, I don't know. It was kind of like Seagull was so different for him that it kind of overshadowed Eisenberg a little bit.

But again, Eisenberg a great actor. Very looking forward to seeing him play Lex Luthor. But it was just him and his element where Seagull was kind of stretching his wings a little bit for me.

Done? I wouldn't agree with that. That when it comes down to it, besides some minor roles in this, it's just two people in this film.

So they have to really carry the weight in this film when you think about it. I thought they did okay in forming that bond throughout the film. I thought they complimented each other okay on this thing here.

But I didn't really see that big oomph oomph for these guys just bond like brothers on this thing. And that's because I think like you're saying, Eisenberg did okay in the film, I thought. But you know, I just thought it lacked a little bit something in there when it came to the performances for what they're trying to provide in this thing.

What's his character written that way though? That's what it felt like. I felt like Eisenberg's character.

I felt it was written to just to be medium at best more like week. What Seagull, you know, he like I agree with you. He did very, very well in this thing, you know.

But I think their acting styles may have clashed for this film. Maybe Eisenberg maybe wasn't the best person for this. Seagull, I think was.

I think Eisenberg was fine. Yeah. I just don't know that, you know what I mean?

I think I think Andrew's right. I think it's just what it called for. Chad, anything you want to add here?

I think that that was the intent was to make Seagull look like a larger than life person and remind, you know, Eisenberg's character that this is the kind of guy he wants to be. And I think I think it was intentional to play that just you played him a little bit more understated and Seagull played his character a little bit more overstated. So he overshadowed Eisenberg's character.

I don't think that that's, I don't think that was a flaw. I think that was kind of the overall intent of the whole film. This was to make him look like this, this large, Hemingway type figure and this is what Eisenberg's character wants to be.

That's what he's striving towards. So he's going to, he's going to be fumbling and awkward and not be as, you know, fluent with his dialogue as Seagull will because he'll just go, Seagull's character will just go on for for 10 minutes about something that would be very, very deep and esoteric and Eisenberg's kind of looking at him like, oh god, I wish I could do that. And it's also that he wants to walk that line.

He wants to be objective as an interviewer, but he's so fascinated by this guy that he does want to be as friend. It's like sending you and I go like. It's like sending you the interview Kevin Smith.

There'd be like sending me the interview prints. It would be the Chris Farrell show. It would.

It would be the Chris Farrell show. It would. It would be the Kimber Crimmer.

He did clerks. Our minds will be so blown that we're sitting in the presence of someone that we idolized. And that we truly wish we could be.

Just like land this. Well. He, you guys were like, that was just shocked because he was there, but you're like, huh, but you know, It's I think in a nutshell, that's what this film really boils down to that he was so in awe of this guy That he didn't know how to conduct himself on a he it was hard to it was hard to separate the personal from the professional I think He was so caught up in who this guy was he was caught up in his in his mythos that it just kind of left him staggering It's a fair point Did anybody feel that Cigil character like he really held himself back throughout this?

Maybe a little bit. I think he could have pushed it a little bit further. Yeah, I mean because his character You could always tell he like physically he wanted to do more, but he never really acted out on it It was almost like he was a cage animal just but he didn't let out of that.

But I feel maybe that was built in too I do too. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, that foster Wallace What I really liked about this character in the way he portrayed him is He's one of these guys. Yeah, I know I want to do it for the fame, but he sure didn't mind it.

No, he didn't you know and He's trying to keep his artist cred But once the rock star credit the same time He played that very well He wants the bells and whistles that comes along with he just doesn't want anybody to know that he wants the bells And whistles I absolutely believe that that was that was the intent there the only problem that I had overall with it though Is that that the ending felt a little unresolved because there were facts that I found out after viewing this film that right didn't reveal And I'm like why didn't they reveal that it's maybe take out some of the slower parts and put some of our The resolution in it or just or just show it before you roll the credits. Yeah, one of those text things screen She should I would have liked to have maybe seen an actual pictures of the people they portrayed You caught a glimpse of David Foster Wallace on the cover of one of the books in the background Yeah, but it was so quick. Yeah, it was yes like where we've seen some movies recently like the woman in gold Where they put side by side Ryan Reynolds in the guy he played and big close big eyes like an Argo and stuff Yeah, yeah, that was scary.

Yeah, Argo, maybe the the most dead on example of getting a casting right outside of that flag But you're you were saying over on this film and I'm gonna do this so I could you know get more of a lead into the final analysis is that This thing here for me though It bored me. I got really really bored unfortunately for me It just did not click. I saw what the director was trying to do in When I use those examples of Cobb and almost famous in the review of the vampire and stuff like that I think that's what he was trying to attempt But it felt so so short in my opinion this thing just dragged on for me in my opinion Here's the story They interview and they go in the trip and they go to Malve, America.

That's it and the rest of the stuff in between Didn't pack the punch that I think it really needed it could have been a lot lot better But I think they just fell short in this thing for time of time. I was going when's this thinking it and this is just Beginning I was really into it hoping for it But as time went on it just started to chip away at me Incredibly bad. Well to compare this to interview the vampire that's comparing apples.

Yeah, but you still almost famous or Cobb. This is not same genre of Cobb Well, but you're also talking about a slightly more dynamic set of personalities at work here But still it they're trying to do that same kind of format there. I don't know if they are.

I don't know if they're trying to do that I think he was trying to do that I mean, that's his opinion. Yeah, you know people that's that that's what we're here for it airbase has their opinion on it Anything else for we get to final analysis boys? Got to think our best friends again and actually everybody at the hell I think you so much from blindness to this thing All right All right Let's get to the final analysis the way we do the final analysis on this show We don't give you thumbs up thumbs down.

We don't give you Stars we don't give you letter rankings. We don't give you number rankings anything like that our audience the empire is better than that We ask two questions question number one is would you see this film again? The answer is no Then we're done here.

If the answer is yes then it's how far you were going to go to see this film again Would you pay full price and first run? Would you go to a twilight show date time show early morning on a Saturday Would you wait for it at the dollar theatre in a second run? would you run it from net net net net net net net net breadth HFFF the red box that will do stream it on netflix Would you wait for it on cable?

Don Would you see this film again I'm gonna have to add a butt on this thing you said but no but I would recommend it on TV only just to just because of some of the acting in here I would never watch this thing again I guarantee that I will never watch this again but to some people see it on TV because I thought some of the acting was really good yeah would you see this again absolutely I would how far you want to go this is the kind of thing that would be best you'd on on on on a home theater I think I would again it's one of those things where I'd like to see what extras they put on a blue ray and I especially want to watch it after I have read infinite just I want to read I believe you picked up yes I've picked that up and I've picked up the the book that the film is based on as well I'd like to read them both and then watch this again and see where else this thing could have gone Andrew Chiske yes only to talk about it with my cousin because I think he would be interested in this movie that's the reason why fair enough at home obviously I would see it again but I think I'm with you guys I think if it was on cable and it was click around there wasn't much going on that you know I'd stop down it's not like I didn't like it I just kind of is what it is I'd like to see if maybe they put like some archival interviews or something something that he's done where we could actually see David Foster Wallace and I'd have to go as far as say basic cable because I'm gonna need the commercials to to actually like look at my notes and say wow they really missed up on this part there enough anything else we'll get to the plugs make we're good all right visit our website www dot the clubhouse podcast dot com find out everything you need to know and some stuff you don't like our Facebook page look up to clubhouse podcast on Facebook with the word podcast on the intro it's in the completely different follow this show on Twitter at clubhouse show you can follow me on Twitter if you'd like I am a yes that Rob Irvin that has spelled ERV I and I am at chat in PG69 I am at King of Bowling I'm at fondongo and you can email me at dawn at the clubhouse podcast dot com email don with information on how we can come do a live show for you we'd love doing live shows you can email me if you'd like questions comments concerns tell me to go pounds sand I am Rob at the clubhouse podcast dot com I am chat at the clubhouse podcast dot com I am going pounce and a gmail dot com sure the parker is on Pinterest because we are morally obligated to say that and jules walman's probably just chill at the house check out our normal live shows every Sunday night seven each and four pacific we are your one stop shop for all things sports entertainment so until next time for dawn for Andrew for Chad for the Empire I'm Rob clubhouse's close could have written Palmer in like one of the scenes and the readings or whatever but that's just me the preceding was a sooner or later production

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