Rebel in the Rye
Nicholas Hault leads this biopic on one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, J.D. Salinger. Co-stars Kevin Spacey and Zoey Deutch.
"This chronicle of one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers, J.D. Salinger, begins as he embarks on his writing career and enters into a tumultuous relationship with young starlet Oona O’Neill. What appears to be a promising start to a career turns into a nightmare when the United States enters World War II. After enlisting, Salinger experiences the horrors of war across the battlefields of Europe, where he begins to pen what would become his iconic novel, The Catcher in the Rye - a work that would forever change the country and its author." (Sundance Film Festival)
2017106 minsUSA
DramaTrue Story & Biography
- Director:
- Danny Strong (feature debut)
- Writer:
- Danny Strong
- Cast:
- Nicholas HoultKevin SpaceySarah PaulsonZoey DeutchHope DavisVictor GarberBrian d'Arcy JamesLucy Boynton
Rebel in the Rye / Reviews
Village Voice
This thanklessly watchable film... like any cliched writing, deserves rejection.
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The New York Times
While Rebel in the Rye isn’t quite as bad as its pile-of-bricks-clunky title suggests, it’s both simple- and literal-minded...
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Los Angeles Times
The journey of J.D. Salinger from young wiseacre to world-celebrated author and notorious recluse is absorbingly traced...
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RogerEbert.com
A feature-length biopic that appears to be comprised of half-realised highlights from a television miniseries.
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Seattle Times
(Rebel in the Rye) isn’t terrible; it’s just one of those period films that never catches a spark...
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Boston Globe
You realise the director has bought into the myth along with everyone else, to the point where he thinks the life itself is all the story you need. That's not art, that's worship, and it's what sent J.D. Salinger heading for the hills in the first place.
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Chicago Reader
Fatally, the movie fails to convey the sympathy and imagination of Salinger's prose - instead characters simply state over and over again how brilliant he is.
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Paste
The minutiae of the film's scenes are undermined by a screenplay with details so sparse.
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Slant Magazine
The decision to hustle in montage-style fashion through Salinger’s life reduces the man’s development to facile cause-and-effect relationships.
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Independent
Spacey has unsurprisingly been scrubbed from its cover art. The same treatment should have been extended to the film itself.
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Variety
Diverting, mildly informative and - to borrow Caulfield's adjective of choice - somewhat phony, heavy as it is on tortured-writer clichés and contrived art-imitates-life parallels.
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Hollywood Reporter
Strong ... draws connections between life and art in ways many others have, but finds it hard to conjure his subject's passion for writing.
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Collider
Instead of demythologising Salinger, Rebel in the Rye plays like a fan film rather than an honest examination of a complex figure.
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