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My Salinger Year

Play trailer 2:01 Poster for My Salinger Year R Released Mar 5, 2021 1h 41m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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71% Tomatometer 86 Reviews 61% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
New York in the 90s: After leaving graduate school to pursue her dream of becoming a writer, Joanna (Margaret Qualley) gets hired as an assistant to Margaret (Sigourney Weaver), the stoic and old-fashioned literary agent of J. D. Salinger. Fluctuating between poverty and glamour, she spends her days in a plush, wood-panelled office -- where dictaphones and typewriters still reign and agents doze off after three-martini lunches -- and her nights in a sink-less Brooklyn apartment with her socialist boyfriend. Joanna's main task is processing Salinger's voluminous fan mail, but as she reads the heart-wrenching letters from around the world, she becomes reluctant to send the agency's impersonal standard letter and impulsively begins personalizing the responses. The results are both humorous and moving, as Joanna, while using the great writer's voice, begins to discover her own.
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My Salinger Year

Critics Reviews

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Mark Kermode Kermode & Mayo's Film Review You can't help comparing it to The Devil Wears Prada, which is sharper and funnier and more bitter...but it's the very definition of a film that goes down nicely, there are better things it can be but worse things too... May 24, 2021 Full Review Charlotte O'Sullivan London Evening Standard Sigourney Weaver and Margaret Qualley are two of the juiciest actresses in America and, thanks to them, this period drama is never less than tantalising. Rated: 3/5 May 23, 2021 Full Review Wendy Ide Observer (UK) Any film that can take an actor as sparky as Qualley and deliver a character with the personality of a damp dishcloth wrapped in a cardigan is seriously underusing its year in New York. Rated: 2/5 May 23, 2021 Full Review Geoffrey Macnab iNews.co.uk This literary drama is too bland and nostalgic to have much emotional impact. Rated: 2/5 Jan 16, 2025 Full Review Rachael Mead InDaily Sigourney Weaver steals the limelight in this beautifully shot adaptation of Joanna Rakoff’s best-selling memoir. Feb 17, 2023 Full Review Keith Garlington Keith & the Movies “My Salinger Year” is a charming and earnest drama that tells its story with a warm sincerity but muted emotions. Rated: 3/5 Aug 17, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Snuggly A movie about nothing. Joanna is a writer-wannabe who becomes a secretary to make a living. She replaces her out of state boyfriend with a washed up boyfriend who apparently doesn't wash his hair. Instead, they wash the dishes in the bathtub together. He calls her bubba a lot. Other things happen. The end. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 11/12/24 Full Review Rosana B Baseado no livro de memórias de mesmo nome de Joanna Rakoff, delicadamente adorável, sem saber exatamente se foi fidedigno, mas com um lirismo e intensidade estonteante, embalada por uma linda e leve trilha sonora, com atuações primorosas da iniciante Margaret Qualleye da talentosíssima Sigourney Weaver, roteiro atraente, as cartas dão uma familiaridade e dramaticidade, a vida pregressa a fama de Joanna, bem como a toxidade de seu relacionamento e a libertação de um vida mediana e rotineira... Rated 4 out of 5 stars 10/06/24 Full Review Andrea F Lovely film very nicely directed and acted - Margaret absolutly adorable Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/21/24 Full Review peter S Horrible. experiment in film making. A film with no point, no sense and no continuity. Margaret Qualley is the anorexic talking about everything except. Her appearance is skelettal. Her voice is cavernous. It's bad. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/08/24 Full Review Ashley H As a person who loves reading, this is like a film I would dream of myself inside. I mean, everybody would love to live in a cheap apartment in NY, have coffee and write for hours. Such a dream. And the film just makes the dream come to life. The characters talking to us, that was my favorite part. They're not talking, they're reading letters, reading their emotions, not just telling them, they actually sound like they are reading to us, which makes the film more beautiful. And the fact that this is based on a true story is just crazy, quiet amazing. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 11/01/23 Full Review Stefan B Interesting story exploring the life of a young woman who ended up forgoing a promising career as a literary agent to become a writer. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 10/09/23 Full Review Read all reviews
My Salinger Year

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Cast & Crew

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Philippe Falardeau

Director

Margaret Qualley

Joanna

Sigourney Weaver

Margaret

Douglas Booth

Don

Seána Kerslake

Jenny

Colm Feore

Daniel

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My Salinger Year

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My Salinger Year

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Movie Info

Synopsis New York in the 90s: After leaving graduate school to pursue her dream of becoming a writer, Joanna (Margaret Qualley) gets hired as an assistant to Margaret (Sigourney Weaver), the stoic and old-fashioned literary agent of J. D. Salinger. Fluctuating between poverty and glamour, she spends her days in a plush, wood-panelled office -- where dictaphones and typewriters still reign and agents doze off after three-martini lunches -- and her nights in a sink-less Brooklyn apartment with her socialist boyfriend. Joanna's main task is processing Salinger's voluminous fan mail, but as she reads the heart-wrenching letters from around the world, she becomes reluctant to send the agency's impersonal standard letter and impulsively begins personalizing the responses. The results are both humorous and moving, as Joanna, while using the great writer's voice, begins to discover her own.
Director
Philippe Falardeau
Producer
Luc Déry, Kim McCraw
Screenwriter
Philippe Falardeau
Distributor
IFC Films
Production Co
Parallel Film Productions Ltd.
Rating
R (Some Sexual References|Language)
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 5, 2021, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 5, 2021
Box Office (Gross USA)
$54.0K
Runtime
1h 41m
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