Rolling Stone magazine is a pop culture institution, which has sculpted the landscape of American media since its inception in 1967. Through the ages, from Hunter S. Thompson’s political reporting to becoming a cultural loudspeaker for youth-orientated lifestyle, getting the Annie Leibovitz treatment and gracing the cover with an interview story has been the stamp for hitting the big time.

While Rolling Stone has done many cover interviews with rock, movie and TV stars, very few have focused on writers, and even fewer have been adapted to film like Almost Famous and now The End of the Tour. The story immerses us in a five-day interview between a Rolling Stone journalist and an acclaimed novelist, which took place right after the 1996 publication of his groundbreaking epic novel, Infinite Jest.

We’re talking about the innovative and influential author, David Foster Wallace, whose masterpiece was cited as one of the 100 best English-language novels between 1923 and 2005 by Time magazine. His interviewer, David Lipsky, engages the overnight phenomenon on the road, at his home and at hotels as the two discuss everything from fame to masturbation.

“…is my bandana going to be a thing?”

The End of the Tour is translated to screen by director James Ponsoldt and screenwriter Donald Margulies, who adapted David Lipsky’s novel. Ponsoldt brought intimate majesty to The Spectacular Now, which helped establish Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, and now gets a chance to work with the equally talented and unassuming Hollywood paradoxes, Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg.

While essentially a two-hander, this drama keeps moving like a road trip movie as smart, thought-provoking dialogue lace scenes together. We move from a Wayne’s World style bromance to awkward silences as the two writers find commonalities and competition in a rambling interview that brings its own journalistic tension.

Segel and Eisenberg’s complex on-screen chemistry keep things interesting as the fine actors push each others buttons and boundaries. It’s a prickly relationship, that reinforces a great casting call and embroiders the oddball pairing, brought home by two honest and authentic performances that make it difficult to unstitch the shadows.

The direction is fairly invisible, smoothed over by the script’s natural flow and sense of spontaneity. It’s an introspective drama as the interviewer and interviewee go deep, expose their flaws and get philosophical. The excellent performances and smart screenplay make The End of the Tour crackle with off-handed humour and bristle with unconventional wisdom.

We’re seeing the world through the eyes of an envious journalist, whose love/hate adoration for the famed author lead them to gel and clash over 5 days. We’re privy to the recordings as the film is supplanted in the past and replayed as a retrospective character study.

Just like Rolling Stone’s choice to interview a writer, it’s not a fancy concept drama, but one that relies on first-rate co-lead performances, offbeat comedy and inspiring sentiment around life, fame, addiction and what makes us lonely. The End of the Tour has a haunting, restless spirit and draws you in with a fly-on-the-wall investigation into the paradoxical relationship between talent and fame.

The bottom line: Authentic

Release date: 18 September, 2015
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