how accurate was dfw's portrayal in the film?
>>7374920
Judas/Jesus
I watched it last night. you can tell he watched the meme interview 1000 times, really got the facial tics down, but his voice is off, and his delivery is way too meek and spergy.
From the little bit of real DFW I've seen/heard, I'd say Jason did as good a job as anyone else was ever going to do.
That said, fuck the 'Tryna' steal my ex-girlfriend!?' subplot that existed only to cater to airheads who need unnecessary drama in order to focus on a movie.
I knew that scene was fake as fuck when I watched the movie, and confirmed my suspicion when I read Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself. (Which is much better than the movie except for one thing: Lipsky's notes in the book are shit. Indirect and annoying to read three times trying to figure out what he's trying to clarify (which often needed no clarification anyway).)
>>7374920
Franzen said at a reading a few weeks ago that he had no interest in the movie because it would be impossible to capture the real dfw (they were good friends) because there is very little public recording of him, and he was much different (complicated) in private
>>7374920
didn't seem very accurate. case in point is that they had him wearing the bandana 100% of the time. additionally, they dress him as a hobo and putting layers of coats on an already broad as fuck guy like segal just makes him look fucking ridiculous. Yes, i know dfw was 6'2 himself, but he certainly wasn't a giant fucking rectangluar homelessman like in the film.
>>7375239
There were two scenes in the movie where he's not wearing the bandanna, so "100%" is inaccurate. And he called it his safety blanket, so I'd say it made sense considering how stressful the tour was for him.
A very fair amount of dialog was copied right from AoCYEUBC, so it's not like they got his verbiage or personality wrong.
Except, like I said in my other post, that cringe-worthy scene in the girl's kitchen.
>>7376519
I knew something was weird about that scene. I was watching w/ my gf, and we both cringed, and I just threw up my hands and said IDK and felt like I was apologizing for an idiot friend.
Segel made him look like a fairly nice guy, he was a total cunt.
Segel did a good job at acting like him but he didn't even attempt to change his voice the way impressionists do. Sounded like Marshall from How I Met Your Mother. The forced conflict with the woman was stupid. They should've just gotten kind of pissy with the whole sincere/ironic facade shit because people get pissy after being around each other for a few days. Anyone who has gone camping or on a road trip with a friend knows this. I also feel like it was a little too caricaturish and didn't properly capture just how bookish and dweeby DFW seemed. Segel didn't read Infinite Jest until he was cast, which is worrisome. You'd want someone who has read everything the guy put out, or at least everything he had written up to that point. I think if he read Good Old Neon he'd have a better idea of the kind of mental gymnastics fraudulence shit going on in his head. Just felt very surface level. Not enough "oh no now I'm perspiring" and wincing and always qualifying every statement like in the Charlie Rose interview. DFW just never seemed that cool. This big broad guy in the snow with four coats and petting all over a dog talking in this deep as fuck stoner voice doesn't capture how much of a little geek DFW was.
>>7374920
he went slightly too meek, and yet somehow didn't seem sensitive enough. it wasnt bad by any stretch but just a little off
It wasn't about accuracy, he was portraying a character. It's not a biopic.
Though I will say I appreciate that they portrayed DFW's cunty side.
>>7375239
>but he certainly wasn't a giant fucking rectangluar homelessman like in the film.
fuck this made me laugh
you guys summed up my problems well
>>7376759
this especially
he was at once too soft and not thoughtful enough
not tightly articulated enough. more who i'd expect to write some kind of scifi genre fiction that didnt really care about his craft
>>7376519
I must have forgotten about those 2 scenes. Which were they btw?
>>7378599
this
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>>7378593
One of them is when he gets out of the shower, I think.
I remember him not wearing it 100% of the time because I watched it with the commentary and they pointed out specifically when he didn't have it on as a sort of, "In this scene he's really letting Lipsky 'in' because you can see he's not wearing his bandanna. He's allowing himself to be vulnerable."
It's like they used it as a symbol instead of just accurately portraying how much he really wore it. And since it's only a two-hour movie, I'm cool with that.
I think
>>7376796
made a good point about him playing a character.
>>7376805
You got a source for that? Because Lipsky did not include anything about Julie/Betsy giving him a copy of her poetry book or email address or ever speaking privately or having a disagreement with DFW over a girl. The scene really felt fake because Lipskystarts crying when DFW confronts him awkwardly in the kitchen. Like, he clearly has a live-in girlfriend -- which DFW already flirted with on the phone in the hotel room (and I'm pretty sure that was fake too).
Do you guys have artificial spit?
The scene with the ex girlfriend really happened. From the screenwriter:
"What Lipsky shared with me is that moment that some people have accused me of creating. As being too Hollywood. [Laughs]. When in fact it was something that Lipsky didn’t include in his book because he felt that it got in the way of Wallace’s voice. Because that was really what he was trying to convey in that book... That moment that occurs between the two guys in Julie’s kitchen, I wouldn’t have known if David Lipsky hadn’t shared that with me. Not to sound too coarse about it, but it provided me with my third act. Because it’s a turn that occurs. A schism that occurs that changes the tenor of what follows. Dramatically speaking, I felt that that was absolutely necessary. And serendipitous that such a thing actually occurred, and that David Lipsky was generous enough to share it with me, and gave me permission to include it in the film. So there were things that I pulled to it that were not in the book. But certainly not anything that didn’t happen."
http://creativescreenwriting.com/the-end-of-the-tour-a-road-trip-with-david-foster-wallace/
>>7379521
Wow, thank you for providing a source. Holy futt buck.
>>7379175
That hit a nerve, family.
Whenabouts is this supposed scene in the kitchen? I'm going through the film and I can't find it.
>tfw television addiction killed your attention span and capacity to sit through an entire film
>>7379570
The night after the main reading depicted in the film.
They meet up with the girls, DFW does the reading, then the go to one girl's place to watch movies.
>>7375239
nailed it.
>>7376721
He was? how do you know? From everything I've seen thus far he seems really compassionate and outwardly focused... but that might just be for/becauseof publicity.
>>7381275
it's a meme to say that dfw was a dick in his personal life.
>>7381738
Well... what was his personality actually like?
>>7381928
Here's the scoop.
http://exiledonline.com/david-foster-wallace-portrait-of-an-infinitely-limited-mind/
This is to be taken with a grain of salt, as I've only seen a few interviews of DFW and read some bios online...
But I think Jason did an inoffensive job at portraying DFW In the film. What I mean is that he wasn't really /wrong/ but he didn't really hit the marks that made DFW... DFW.
Sure... DFW was more on the softer side, but this was a sort of calmness/maturity... DFW was not meek, just very in tune with his intellect and having a serenity, probably caused by depression and intellectually mature he was.
The scripting was not as 'tightly articulate' as DFW really was, as others have mentioned in this thread. Jason made him seem meek as fuck, which DFW really wasn't. DFW was also a lot more spergy when you're alone with him one-on-one, and also generally pretty bad with the nuances of social skills. He was also quite nerdy, as others have said, and I don't think that was portrayed well enough.
It was overall, just... mediocre.
6.5 tbqh
>>7381946
>DFW was also a lot more spergy when you're alone with him one-on-one, and also generally pretty bad with the nuances of social skills.
a source for this other than your own imagination?
>>7381946
It's very hard for non-autistics to replicate the unique tics and quirks of spergs convincingly.
Suck on it, normies.
ps DFW was only a stoner because you can't be Thomas Pynchon without being a stoner.
>>7381951
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLPStHVi0SI
>>7381951
Lol. An interview with his sister and a bio.
Stop trying to act like 'you've found me out.'
>>7381962
I know you're a piece of shit. Enjoy living your lie of a life. You can pretend all you want, but the only person you're fooling is yourself. Pathetic slave.
>>7381965
Uh. What?
>>7381965
Edgy
>>7381946
But I will say that the script relayed a lot of David's philosophies on life pretty well in the limited timespan of the film.
>>7382010
It's amazing that the philosophy of a highly educated, 30-something fully grown man could be so infantile and self-indulgent.
>>7382010
To add... I'm watching some movie clips over again and Jason just sounds like a pseudo-intellectual college professor. David wasnt like that at all, he had a lot more depth to his speech. Moreover, he wasn't 'acting' which is where I think this error on Jason's part comes into play. Jason's trying to take on a mind that had so many layers, and portray it as such... but only a person with that many layers to their thoughts can portray that. That sort of mind just has to be in you, or else it will just sound forced... Which it is.
>>7382017
He was pretty young in certain ways. Where are you getting this info from?
An analysis you all might be interested in:
David Foster Wallace would never have submitted himself to this level of schmaltz. It is so important what he stood for(what he stood against). He never bought into the system, he saw it for what it was and choose to live as free as he could. This biopic completely missed his point. Our version of liberty is one which does the opposite where the reality is sacrifice for the principle of pleasure. The irony in everything, movies and the Simpsons. There is no truth or beauty anymore, you have to tarnish it. This movie makes him look like a hipster offering armchair platitudes or stoner philosophy, exactly what he stood against. And using music from a band like REM whose music has a message that deeply meaningful feeling is a substitute or par with having critical thought or knowledge, but had not movement behind it saying anything, represent a typical example of postmodern thinking. He was totally about getting out of the adopting a mentality where you just choose an easy life by not challenging the established thought or the political structure around your life. For a sort of shallow reality where you had comfort and pleasure but emptiness, where careers served as corridors to the security of position and status but narrow, cellular lives of predictability.
>>7382026
He would've secretly loved this shit while publicly protesting against it, knowing full well that nobody takes what he says publicly to heart.
Pomona college student here who knows faculty acquainted with him and his family. Ive heard the family and friends have disavowed the film and portrayal. Didnt get a good reason why. Also, I know a lot of good stories about him in and outside of the classroom at pomona that I'm positive I can't share without permission.
That's Sam Hyde on the left.
>>7382128
Can you give an idea as to why they might have denied the film?
>>7382128
i promise i won't tell anyone ;)
>>7374920
I think it was good. He even got the hand-waving gesture that DFW always did into the movie too.
The movie overall was shit though to be honest, the part about them arguing about a fucking girl seemed retarded, and not realistic at all.
Personal friend of DFW here. Out of respect for his family, I can't speak much about how he was in person, but I can say that the film is NOTHING like him. The DFW I knew was a dark, twisted man with no room in his life for other people. Perhaps using the word "friend" to describe my relation to him is already going too far, though we did spend a lot of casual time together, since I was his provider for heroine and occasionally much heavier substances which I can assure you he was using almost perpetually throughout the writing of Infinite Jest and all subsequent work as well. Getting to know him this way made me finally realize that it was true all along that the only way to success is heavy drug use.
>>7382128
This is an anonymous Bengali food storage community, your secrets are safe with us, my friend :^)
>>7382151
In what ways was he so dark and twisted?
>>7382167
>taking shitty b8
>>7382169
>tfw I'll never know DFW
>>7382171
Should be happy for that really. Depressing people are not fun to be around.
t.depressed person
>>7382173
that's true. I'm depressed as hell and all I really do anymore is read and write. I don't go outside or experience things. it's boring and sad and... well depressing.
>>7382175
You're living the dream life, brother. Embrace it.
>>7382178
What do you mean? I want out of this.
I'll give one super short story. He once commented on a student's graded paper that it was so terrible he was seriously considering cutting himself again. It created a small stir, apparently. He was by all accounts a genius and loved by his students, but he was definitely a troubled guy.
>>7382185
Rings a bell. I think I heated that before. Was he saying it as a jab at the student or very literally without malice?
>>7382185
>He once commented on a student's graded paper that it was so terrible he was seriously considering cutting himself again.
Sounds like something DFW would say. Regardless of if he meant it or not.
>>7382184
Smoke weed or go to a doctor and get some anti-depressants.
Also, move to a country with a lot of sun.
>>7382188
>>7382193
He said it in a cold, sneering tone as he ripped up the paper and scattered the pieces at the student's feet, wiping his feet, David's, on the pile and turning back towards the board upon which he scrawled an obscene chalk image of a strange, straw-like penis ejaculating explosively on what was clearly supposed to be a caricature of the aforementioned student's shocked, tearful face.
>>7382203
Oh my god. That hurt my feelings just reading that. DFW was one heartless fucker. What was the student's paper about anyways? How exciting it would be to bomb a homeless shelter?
>>7382203
kek
Sounds really sad and banal.
>>7382206
Honestly, that kind of makes me angry. So, he's now been given this position as a professor, and he's somehow the omnipotent expert on lit criticism? Fuck him. Love the guy but seriously, that was thoughtless and honestly cruel.
>>7381958
the man is so self-conscious you can see him actually wincing at things he's saying, as he's saying them.
>>7382214
why does he dress with no sense of personal style
>the bandanna, a loathsome affectation
>>>>>>>>>cargo shorts
>LONG BLACK SOCKS
>ugly nikes (you're not michael jordan you're a hand-wringing drug addict)
>>>>>>>>>>round lenses
>smug look of self-satisfaction
I know this is one picture, but wow. Is this his cute way of rebelling against the literary establishment? is wearing a collared shirt selling out?
That last part didn't happen. It doesn't matter whether he was joking; the comment was definitely troubling. I think the bit about self-harm was only half joking. He was also an extremely tough graders, students complained about the amount of Fs and Ds he gave out, keep in mind Pomona classes are typically 15-20 students. However, he gave a lot of help and was always there for his students. I heard he had really strong following of students who just worshiped him.
>>7382231
To be honest, he was probably as harsh as a professor as the professors were against him when he was studying himself.
In the interview with Charlie Rose he says that all his professors were realists and weren't interested in avant-garde or post-modern literary fiction, which probably made him pissed off because he got shitty grades, so he probably lashed out the same way against his own students.
>>7382242
from what I've read he graduated top of his class.
>>7374920
Retarded / God
>>7382290
Yeah, when he changed college.
