November 29, 2015 -- After seeing this movie, watching the credits scroll up, I was astonished to find the main characters in this story are based on real people. Actually some of the characters in the film are fictional, but the two main characters are based on real people. My surprise was due, in part, to the fact that I have not read any of the books of authors David Lipsky or David Foster Wallace. I had not even heard of them. After watching this movie, I am tempted to read their books.

David Lipsky (played by Jesse Eisenberg of “Now You See Me”) already a published author of some repute, was writing for Rolling Stone magazine, when he heard that David Wallace's latest masterpiece, “Infinite Jest,” was going to win all the top writing awards in 1996. Reading the novel, he realizes that Wallace (played by Jason Segel of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”) is a writer of such stature that Rolling Stone should publish a story about him. He pitches the story to his boss at Rolling Stone, who reluctantly agrees to send Lipsky along on a book tour with Wallace, with the warning, “There had better be a story ... ”

When Lipsky meets Wallace, there is an immediate rapport between the two men. Lipsky is fascinated by the iconoclastic Wallace, an intellectual who seems comfortable in the personae of an everyman. He knows there is a story here, but Lipsky's boss wants the more sensational details of Wallace's life, the drug use, alcoholism, depression, a suicide attempt.

Lipsky doesn't want to ask these questions, and puts some of them off as long as he can. Writers are competitive, and Lipsky and Wallace clash over issues of jealousy and how genuine they really are. Lipsky thinks that Wallace is putting on a front with his blue collar image. It becomes clear, however that Wallace is genuine. His manner is just his way of dealing with his extreme sensitivity to popular culture.

Lipsky describes Wallace as an unusual author. He doesn't take you to other countries, landscapes or even other places. He takes you inside his mind and shows you a new way of looking at the culture you live in. The film begins with Wallace's death by suicide in 2008 and Lipsky's remembrances of the author. It also shows Lipsky reading from a book he wrote in 2010 about the five days he spent with Wallace in 1996, “Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself.”

During the course of their intense conversations, Wallace asks Lipsky if he wants to have Wallace's success, to be like him. Lipsky says no, but he really does. Lipsky goes on to become an award-winning, best-selling author in his own right. Maybe he is inspired by Wallace. This movie leads me to believe that is the case.

Like “My Dinner With Andre” this is a very talky movie, but with more interesting scenery, because it is also a road movie. Most of the film takes place during the last five days of a book tour Wallace does to promote his book, “Infinite Jest.” Eisenberg and Segel give great performances and the dialog is dense, thoughtful and meaningful. This is a movie for book lovers. It rates a B+.

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