My Salinger Year
Sigourney Weaver and Margaret Qualley star in this drama based on Joanna Rakoff’s bestselling memoir about her experiences at a New York literary agency in the 90s. From the director of Monsieur Lazhar.
Idealistic Joanna (Qualley) impulsively quits graduate school and arrives in New York to pursue her dream of becoming a published poet. She gets her foot in the door, becoming an assistant to Margaret (Weaver), a brusque and old-fashioned literary agent. The agency’s most famous client is the notoriously reclusive writer J.D. Salinger, and Joanna’s principal responsibility is to process the voluminous fan mail that arrives for him daily from readers around the world.
Her strict instructions are to reply with one of the office’s impersonal, pre-formulated responses, and destroy the letters, but she cannot help feeling deeply affected by some of the more heartfelt correspondence, and secretly starts answering them personally.
Less2021Rating: M, Coarse language and sexual references101 minsCanada, Ireland
DramaTrue Story & Biography
My Salinger Year | Reviews
Little White Lies
Pleasant and diverting... may leave you craving more of the egotism and rancour that seems to seep from every pore of New York literary scene.
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The Guardian
A simperingly coy knock-off of The Devil Wears Prada without the sexiness and fun.
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Variety
It's a running theme that writers are different than most people would probably imagine. But when it comes to accepting Joanna as one of them, the film never convinces.
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Screen Daily
Although an actor of considerable charm, Qualley struggles to imbue the role with much in the way of texture or substance.
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The Times
Essentially familiar in structure and tone, that owes everything to a pair of knockout performances. It's a casting triumph.
Full reviewMy Salinger Year | Release Details
My Salinger Year is available to stream in New Zealand now on Google Play.