david foster wallace: classic or dud

die REM, just die already

By the way, the REM song they use is "Strange Currencies," which is a) a great song, the good version of the thing "Everybody Hurts" is a terrible version of; and b) a real-life favorite of DFW.

eephus otm strange currencies is impecxable

haha rem is like the least stupid thing about this

Early reviews have been surprisingly positive. I'm willing to give it a chance.

The problem might be that segal is a comic actor and this is a serious role ?

My girlfriend, who has never read any DFW, saw the trailer for this and thought it looked really good. Yeah, so I bought her a copy "Of Course" as a present. She reads literally about 100 books a year.

The problem might be that segal is a comic actor and this is a serious role ?

― calstars

Maybe, but DFW was comedic. At least he definitely tried to be. Honestly I think the problem is that Segel always plays dorks. I mean sure DFW had nerdy tendencies (he was a writer for Christ's sake) but I never understood that to be essential to his identity. I think maybe riding the nerd wave would have been too easy for someone as self-critical as David. or too boring on a conceptual level. Or too exclusionary. I see Segel in this and I'm just like welp, the nerd's won again. Go ahead and have this one too.

I don't know if it's that Segal's a comic actor, I think it's that the whole thing scans as famous actor vanity project brand extension, the type of thing that one surmises that Wallace detested.

Also, biopics have a justifiably bad reputation, generally engaging in a type of flat reductionism that people probably don't want to see applied to someone they view as an immense, very complicated talent.

I'm not saying this is necessarily that kind of flatly reductive biopic, but that the historical record gives people reason to be skeptical. The "Segal is great as DFW!" headlines out of film festivals probably fuels that fire.

Any famous actor in a biopic is going to be met with skepticism. But I get the feeling there's something particularly cringe worthy about Segel's “brand” that's being extended here. If that's what's even going on, or whatever. I haven't read this book, but I hope an actor being comedic isn’t the problem. I'd hope there would be some funny moments in it!

I think this has the ability to avoid the "flatly reductive biopic" pitfall by not really being a proper biopic. I'm assuming a huge chunk of the dialogue in this is lifted straight from Lipsky's tapes.

I guess him being a comic actor is at least part of it, in that the "comedic actor proves their dramatic chops" thing is, at this point, an eye-rolling cliche. Having that on top of the "Oscar-bait biopic" vibes probably does make things worse.

@circa1916 I actually agree that it could be good, I just understand the skepticism.

i think my problem with the trailer is that jason segel sounds too much like jason segel. I wasn't expecting him to mimic DFW's speech patterns I guess, but I just associate his voice with the other characters he's played before.

the problem is it's a plainly terrible idea and everyone involved can diaf!!

segel
the other guy
the director
the producers
lipsky
dfw

all of them can just ... oh wait

i don't normally feel this kind of unconditional acritical hate towards cultural artifacts, i guess this is how the lex feels all the time

the whole premise of this movie is just so corrupt and dubious

i don't mean DFW, just whatever reason anyone chose to make this movie

i just can't imagine this being entertaining, enlightening, interesting to anyone

it scans like the "away we go" of biopics

i don't normally feel this kind of unconditional acritical hate towards cultural artifacts, i guess this is how the lex feels all the time

lol

i think my problem with the trailer is that jason segel sounds too much like jason segel. I wasn't expecting him to mimic DFW's speech patterns I guess, but I just associate his voice with the other characters he's played before.

― Roz, Wednesday, June 10, 2015 6:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i've only heard his voice a couple times but there's something very distinctive about it that Segel doesn't even seem to have even attempted. you'd think he'd at least try to sound more midwestern.

can we start a kickstarter for this film /not/ to be released?

potentially valuable future okcupid filter

actively rooting for this now

I'm thinking the fact that the trailer at one point has Segel say "I think if the book is about anything, it is about the question of 'Why?' - Why am I doing it and what's so American about what I'm doing?" is far more of a terrible film klaxon.

(NB I don't know whether this is or isn't representative of DFW, have an uncracked Infinite Jest on my shelves like everyone)

(eephus also OTM about Strange Currencies)

That quote is directly from Lipsky's book, hard to judge how it sits in the movie based on the trailer.

Hard not to feel that David Lipsky is a real vampire for optioning the movie rights to his book (which I haven't read)

youll be shocked by the reveal @ the end of the book when lipsky literally sinks his teeth into wallaces neck

also it's hard to shake the dfw cosplay vibes in promotional materials

I didn't realize that this was the drummer kid from Freaks and Geeks. Doesn't look like him (or Wallace) at all. It's on the tip of my tongue who I thought this was.

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DBk1Mrb4RyM/maxresdefault.jpg

Maybe not even an actor. Maybe someone from a third-tier jam band or something.

http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2009/top10_speeches/top10_speeches_wallace.jpg

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hm94gUBCih8/hqdefault.jpg

I guess the reason I'm approaching this movie with optimism is that Lipsky's book is really moving and great, so much so that I'm not planning to read the Max biography, I am content with the portrait by Lipsky as my final view of DFW.

wallaces hair irl in photos seemed much better conditioned than in segals portrayal, fuck this film

Segal doesn't really capture DFW's facial expressions either. The bandana and glasses are spot on, I guess.

once i went to a costume party with someone in attendance wearing a bandana, glasses, and a carmen miranda hat: bananas foster wallace

segel should go for that imo

otm

― bananas foster wallace (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, April 29, 2011 2:45 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Movies about writers : not a good idea in general?

movies about hacks are great: all the felt experience of the movie's writer with none of the awe

btw guys a "biopic" encompasses decades

kind of disagree with that. Even if there's an official rule somewhere about how much time a biopic must cover, I have concerns that this is going to fall into the same traps as the movies that fit your definition.

re reviews, a critic in my Letterboxd feed gave half a star and said "this doesn't improve on second viewing."

hey, it coulda been James Franco, so

That quote is directly from Lipsky's book, hard to judge how it sits in the movie based on the trailer.

I'm not finding it hard to judge :)

But then part of the problem is that there's lots of ways that the line could be saved if it indicated that DFW-in-the-film was aware of how ridiculous it was, but although Segel is a comedian, he's one of the plague of modern comedians who can only do earnest.

Listen Up Phillip is a very good recent film about writers, fyi. I'd say, in general, films about writers are probably less navel-gazing than films about film-makers. Obviously, the opposite is true of literature.

Listen Up Philip was purely fiction. A movie built around a writer rather than the other way around.

kind of disagree with that. Even if there's an official rule somewhere about how much time a biopic must cover, I have concerns that this is going to fall into the same traps as the movies that fit your definition.

― intheblanks, Friday, June 12, 2015 4:02 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the big downfall of biopics is usually that the screenwriter has to create all these scenes and lines of dialogue that sum up an entire period of someone's life and often ring false. movies that are faithful depictions of a specific incident or period of time can sidestep that, but if you're depicting a magazine interview, where someone is TRYING to get quotes out of a subject that sums up their life and work, then the dialogue probably runs the risk of sounding overly on-the-nose even if they actually said it. it's probably a good reason (among many) that people generally don't make films about magazine interviews.

no better ilx than trailer judgment ilx

max if it helps i have no intention of actually watching the trailer