Well, I’ll be upfront after watching this movie, my friends
said, “this is an abbreviated version of Kari’s dating history,” and that wasn’t
too far off. I date a lot of dudes who think they are smarter than
everyone else and fight about other things because they can’t admit they are
jealous of one another. My one friend actually suggested we were watching two
white dudes jerk each other’s egos off. Which on some level isn’t wrong.
That is to say, I liked the movie, kind of, and I didn’t
like the movie. I don’t know what I was expecting. I haven’t read Lipsky’s book
about his six day conversation with David Foster Wallace. I’m going to do
Lipsky a solid and assume there is more analysis of in the text that couldn’t
translate to screen without a terrible voiceover. This movie will leave you
with a few things: 1. Men really want to get laid with as little effort as
possible, 2. It is easy to see how Wallace has become a dude-bro darling, and
3. Wallace suffered anxiety and depression and was not equipped to talk about
it. This last one was the saving grace of the film for me.
- Seriously, so much of the movie was a long discussion between two men about how they would use their literary fame to have sex, but they didn’t want to feel sleazy about it. Because there is nothing sleazy about wanting to? I’ve hung with enough dudes to know, this isn’t untrue, and it was also a big joke in the movie. But there something sad about it. Wallace talking joking with Lipsky only to explain how meaningless sex leaves you feeling even lonelier than before, which is something Lipsky didn’t really get, and he’s kind of a dick through the whole thing, so he probably still doesn’t get it.
- David Foster Wallace is the patron writer for the dude-bro generation. Even in the film he says, his books are overwhelmingly enjoyed by young, over educated, white men. Man, I hope had he survived he’d be disappointed or actively seeking to correct this. But guys like this do love him. I think it is because these books speak to something that privileged people live with. Something hollow and sad, and I’d argue this thing is why those in privilege cling to it so much. Without it what am I? Without it am I anything at all? Or worst of all, without it, am I like everyone else? If I am not an exception to the rule than I am merely a demonstration, a personification of it. Wallace doesn’t attribute his success with young men to be about privilege, but instead that they are raised by media.
- David Foster Wallace killed himself. The only times in the movie when I was actually interested in what was happening was a. when he was talking about writing and b. when he was talking about his anxiety and depression. I suspect these two things are connected on several levels. Wallace openly admits, he received praise for his writing, and only for his writing, so when it felt like that was going to end he became very sad. He calls it a “less sophisticated diagnoses” is depression. This might link back to this perceived exceptionalism, other people have depression; that can’t possibly be what I have.
Leaving the theater, I was disappointed in the movie. I was
disappointed because Wallace wouldn’t have wanted to be a character to be
played, because his family didn’t endorse the film, and in the end I didn’t
feel like we learned anything. It felt like one of those your heroes will
always disappoint you movies.
