The Magic of Infinite Jest in a Two-Hour Film, Not a 1,000-Page Book | Rewind Review

We turn back the clock to review 2015's The End of the Tour

The End of the Tour (2015, dir. James Ponsoldt) is a biopic as peculiar as the cult-favorite author it portrays: David Foster Wallace.

Rather than delving into every detail of Wallace’s life, the film focuses on the final leg of his Infinite Jest book tour. It’s less about biography and more about the dynamic between Wallace and his interviewer, David Lipsky. The two men share a first name and a vocation as writers, but little else.

On the surface, not much happens. Most of the film is simply a conversation between the author and the journalist. Yet their dialogue reveals complex, layered personalities and quietly compelling tension.

Wallace oscillates between moments of vulnerability and intellectual monologues, offering glimpses of his inner life. Lipsky, by contrast, remains guarded, rarely reciprocating the personal revelations. Wallace’s loneliness emerges in his attempts to connect with Lipsky, while Lipsky stays focused on his goal: crafting the best possible story.

Lipsky’s approach isn’t inherently wrong—he’s a journalist doing his job—but his detachment feels cold when paired with Wallace’s tender neuroticism.

The real magic in the film is paring an unusual author like Wallace with an ordinary guy with career ambitions like Lipsky.

Lipsky’s transgressions—if you can call them that—are ordinary, even predictable. He’s a social climber, willing to do whatever it takes to advance his career, a not-uncommon archetype in literary circles.

What becomes increasingly clear throughout the film is that both men envy each other. Lipsky covets the fame Wallace achieved with Infinite Jest—a level of success his own novel never reached. Meanwhile, Wallace seems to envy Lipsky’s social ease and charisma. Lipsky wants Wallace’s fans; Wallace envies Lipsky’s friends.

Like the flawed, searching characters in his fiction—petty criminals, addicts, and others caught in cycles of dysfunction—Wallace is portrayed as a complicated, achingly human figure.

The End of the Tour doesn’t attempt to tell Wallace’s whole life story. Instead, it captures him in the spirit of one of his own creations: neurotic, troubled, and startlingly beautiful. It’s a refreshing take on a genre too often obsessed with canonizing saints or condemning villains.

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‘The End of the Tour’ is now available to rent on Amazon Prime. Rated R for language including some sexual references.