Details

Release year: 2015

Storyline

The story of the five-day interview between Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky and acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace, which took place right after the 1996 publication of Wallace's groundbreaking epic novel, 'Infinite Jest.'

Top credits

Directors

James Ponsoldt

Writers

Cast

Jason Segel — David Foster Wallace
Jesse Eisenberg — David Lipsky
Anna Chlumsky — Sarah
Mamie Gummer — Julie

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Did you know

• Although this is never made clear or followed up on in the movie, David Lipsky never published the article he was assigned to write on David Foster Wallace in Rolling Stone. He did conduct five days of interviews with Wallace in 1995, but upon his return to New York, Rolling Stone reassigned him to other stories that they deemed more urgent (including rock star Shannon Hoon's drug overdose death). After Wallace's death in 2008, Lipsky unearthed the interview tapes and wrote a book based on them titled "Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace."

• The song heard on the soundtrack when the film ends is "The Big Ship" by Brian Eno, one of David Foster Wallace's favorite songs. It was also used for the climax of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015), another film that premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

• The scene at Wallace's house where Wallace and Lipsky meet for the very first time was also the first time Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg met each other in real life.