Based on the days David Foster Wallace spent with journalist David Lipsky during the tail end of his "Infinite Jest" book tour, this quiet, dialogue-driven film captures something rare on screen: two smart, wary people circling each other, trying to figure out what's real and what's performance. Jason Segel's turn as Wallace and Jesse Eisenberg as the journalist trailing him carry the whole thing, and the film lives in small moments—diner conversations, awkward silences, the particular loneliness of being famous for being smart.
Watching this one in The Beverly Theater's intimate main space feels right for the material—no arena speakers or oversized screen, just good acoustics and a room built for paying attention to what's actually being said. The screening includes a Q&A afterward, giving you a chance to sit with the film's questions a little longer and hear some discussion about what it's actually trying to say about authenticity, ego, and the strange performance of being a public intellectual.