X
- 2021
- R
- IFC Films
- 1 h 41 m
- 2021
- R
- IFC Films
- 1 h 41 m
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 – whe...
Directed By: Philippe Falardeau
Written By: Joanna Smith Rakoff, Catherine Kidd, Philippe Falardeau
- 2021
- R
- IFC Films
- 1 h 41 m
- 2021
- R
- IFC Films
- 1 h 41 m
My Salinger Year
50
6.2
Where to Watch
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 – whe...
Directed By: Philippe Falardeau
Written By: Joanna Smith Rakoff, Catherine Kidd, Philippe Falardeau
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
50
39% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
44% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
17% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
50
39% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
44% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
17% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
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.
In the borderline trifling but consistently amusing and wry period piece My Salinger Year, Qualley has the opportunity to carry the story, and she delivers an effortlessly endearing performance in a literary adventure that plays like The Devil Wears Prada meets Can You Ever Forgive Me, only at lower stakes.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 16 User Ratings
6.2
25% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
75% Mixed
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 16 User Ratings
6.2
25% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
75% Mixed
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
Wonderful film! Great performances by Margaret Qualley and Sigourney Weaver.
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My Salinger Year isn’t much, but it isn’t phony.
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.
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.
The movie doesn’t show a complex enough representation of either adult life or the New York literary world to offer much depth to grownups (it’s far more engaged with Joanna’s romantic life and dream sequences set at the Waldorf Astoria), which means that My Salinger Year must have been intended to inspire young women for whom 1995 seems like the ancient past.
[A] bafflingly insipid, zestless, derivative film.
(Mauro Lanari)
"The Guardian"'s celebrated Peter Bradshaw is one of the many critics who panned the movie calling it "derivative, a simperingly coy knock-off of 'The Devil Wears Prada' without the sexiness and fun." Delusional reasoning, since without those elements it makes no sense to compare it with Frankel's feature film. Personally I endorse the review written by Gary Goldstein of the "Los Angeles Times": Joanna Rakoff's story "is managed with grace, tenderness and touching credibility by a wonderfully winning Qualley in concert with Philippe Falardeau's smart, engaging direction and screenplay." One could have been more concise by recognizing that "My Salinger Year" is the female version of the unforgettable "Finding Forrester" (Van Sant 2000). Being a male, it's easy for me to feel less empathy for Rakoff / Qualley, but I guarantee that it is by no means an insurmountable obstacle.
Report
Think "The Devil Wears Prada" in the book publishing industry, and you've got a pretty good idea what this fact-based personal memoir is all about. When aspiring author Joanna Rakoff takes a job as an administrative assistant at a prestigious, old school New York literary agency, hoping it would help her advance her writing career, she's disillusioned at being relegated to the role **** secretary. But her creative juices are stoked when she's assigned to handle responses to the ample fan mail sent to one of the agency's high-profile clients, the notoriously reclusive J.D. Salinger, with whom she develops a stimulating long-distance creative relationship. The heartfelt story is witty, charming and insightful and will especially appeal to those seeking to launch writing careers of their own. Director Philippe Falardeau's latest tells an engaging tale, even if it tends to be somewhat episodic at times in its attempt at covering an array of story threads. Nevertheless, it all hangs together reasonably well, thanks in large part to the fine performances of Margaret Qualley, Colm Feore and, especially, Sigourney Weaver as the agency's **** boss, as well as several whimsical fantasy sequences that keep the narrative delightfully refreshing. Given the subject matter, "My Salinger Year" won't suit everyone, but those with a literary bent will find it an intelligent, uplifting watch that rises far above much of the cinematic trash being released these days.
Report
Especially thanks to two very good performance by Qualley and Weaver, My Salinger Year remains an intriguing character study, yet some plot lines and tonal shifts could have been handled better.
Report
Based on the autobiographical book by Joanna Rackoff, this film looks at her early career in 90s NYC. She aspired to be a poet, but got a job working for J. D. Salinger’s literary agent (Sigourney Weaver, who dominates the film as her imperious boss). Frankly, Joanna’s continuous mistakes and borderline incompetence should have gotten her fired, but for some reason she persisted. Rackoff is played by Margaret Qualley, who certainly embodied the flaky, conflicted protagonist. The situations seemed derivitive (Devil Wears Prada, anyone?) and even though there are personal interactions, there’s almost no emotional weight for those scenes. Despite the scattered focus of the storyline, there’s an earnest enthusiasm to this scrappy tale that some may appreciate.
Report
This film isn't awful, but there's little in it that makes it interesting. Margaret Qualley and Sigourney Weaver form a good pair on-screen, but not on par with similar duos like Stone/Thompson, in 'Cruella,' or Hathaway/Streep, in 'The Devil Wears Prada.' The screenplay looks for so many ways for the main character to develop, but almost none succeeds. Anyway, you'll have to thank director Philippe Falardeau for not turning this movie into a teen comedy or something like that, but it's still far from something rewarding.
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Production Company
micro_scope,
Parallel Film Productions
Release Date Mar 5, 2021
Duration 1 h 41 m
Rating R
Genres
Tagline The first job is always a great adventure.
Awards
Canadian Screen Awards, CA
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Jutra Awards
• 2 Nominations
La Roche-sur-Yon International Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
