THE END OF THE TOUR [2015]

Director James Ponsoldt adapts writer David Lipsky's memoir Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself into the deeply profound and affecting The End of the Tour.
It tells of Lipsky's 1996 five-day road trip interview with David Foster Wallace, the author of the critically acclaimed Infinite Jest.
It's a deeply woven character study that dissects the fabricated camaraderie and lies told when it comes to a journalist and the human subject at hand.  However it explores an unexpected and brief friendship that is born at different stages of these two men's lives.  Jesse Eisenberg perfects his awkward personality with exquisite execution but it's Jason Segel as the deceased author that completely surprised me with multiple layers of sadness, hatred, intelligence and observation.

4 Big Ships out of 5

SMASHED [2012]

Mary Elizabeth Winstead & Aaron Paul play a couple who's marriage is put to the test when she decides to sober up, while he continues his reckless drunken lifestyle in director James Ponsoldt's drama Smashed.
What could have been a heavy-handed drama about the nightmares of alcoholism turns out to be actually mild-mannered, thoughtful and at times oddly humorous, while still taking it's subject matter fairly serious.  It handles it's bruised emotions and complexities with great care and that's where it shines.  Mary Elizabeth Winstead delivers one of the finest performances I've seen in a long, long time that never gets too dramatic nor does it slip up when the well-placed humor is inserted.

3½ places not to urinate out of 5