My Salinger Year

Name: My Salinger Year
Genre: Drama
Released: March 5, 2021
Duration: 101 min
Rating: 50
Cast: Brían F. O'Byrne, Colm Feore, Douglas Booth, Gavin Drea, Hamza Haq

2021

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Ratings

See All

6.2

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

6.2	Your Score
6.2	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

My Salinger Year

Now Playing: My Salinger Year

Movie Details & Credits

IFC Films | Release Date: March 5, 2021 | Not Rated

Starring: Brían F. O'Byrne, Colm Feore, Douglas Booth, Gavin Drea, Hamza Haq, Jonathan Dubsky, Leni Parker, Margaret Qualley, Seána Kerslake, Sigourney Weaver, Théodore Pellerin, Xiao Sun, Yanic Truesdale

Summary: 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 – whereNew 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. [IFC Films]… Expand

Director: Philippe Falardeau

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 101 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Buy on

Stream On

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Gary Goldstein

Mar 4, 2021

Joanna’s journey of creative and emotional enlightenment — including the balancing act of trying to write when consumed by a day job — is managed with grace, tenderness and touching credibility by a wonderfully winning Qualley in concert with Philippe Falardeau’s smart, engaging direction and screenplay. Read full review

Thom Ernst

Mar 5, 2021

There are remarkable and rewarding moments in the film despite its lack of bite. Read full review

The Playlist Jack King

Feb 26, 2020

While My Salinger Year is not always successful in the larger debate it tries to have around how we can define authorship, and how the commercialization of writing infringes upon creativity, the film’s central narrative following Joanna’s conflicting aspirations as a writer largely succeeds. Read full review

IndieWire Eric Kohn

Feb 26, 2020

My Salinger Year often trips on the self-serious nature of its premise, and struggles with an antiquated quality out of sync with its timeline, as if trapped between the character’s genuine experiences and her idealized vision of a literary world that doesn’t really exist. Read full review

David Lewis

Mar 3, 2021

My Salinger Year, which is basically The Devil Wears Prada set in the literary world, is a film that feels like it’s ready to take off at any moment, but stalls every time it tries to do anything. Read full review

Wendy Ide

Feb 26, 2020

The transporting power of art is a difficult thing to capture in cinema at the best of times, and this film struggles to do so, leaning heavily on a score which signposts the emotional content of each scene a little too emphatically. Read full review

The Guardian Peter Bradshaw

Feb 26, 2020

[A] bafflingly insipid, zestless, derivative film. Read full review

SEE ALL 18 REVIEWS

Write a Review

Negative:

User Reviews

Cinemacriterion

Mar 5, 2021

Wonderful film! Great performances by Margaret Qualley and Sigourney Weaver.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

MurrayT57

Mar 13, 2021

I don't think I've ever seen a movie that moved me as much with its beautiful and perfect acting.