My Salinger Year

"The true story of a literary education."

2020 1h 41m EN

😐

6.3

MID

★6.3TMDB · 208

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A college grad takes a clerical job working for the literary agent of the renowned, reclusive writer J.D. Salinger.

“The true story of a literary education.”

WhatsApp X Facebook Telegram

Where to watch · US

PhiloSubscription

AMC Plus Apple TV channelSubscription

AMC+ Amazon ChannelSubscription

AMC+ Roku Premium ChannelSubscription

AMC+Subscription

Sundance NowSubscription

AcornTV Amazon ChannelSubscription

Acorn TV Apple TV channelSubscription

IFC Films Unlimited Apple TV channelSubscription

Google Play MoviesBuy

YouTubeBuy

Fandango At HomeBuy

Cast

Margaret Qualley
Joanna
Sigourney Weaver
Margaret
Douglas Booth
Don
Seána Kerslake
Jenny
Brían F. O'Byrne
Hugh
Colm Feore
Daniel
Théodore Pellerin
Boy From Winston-Salem
Yanic Truesdale
Max

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Philippe Falardeau
Writers: Philippe Falardeau
Languages: English, French, Spanish
Countries: Canada, Ireland

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 6 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, French, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: Canada, Ireland.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

291+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Philippe Falardeau, shot by Sara Mishara. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Martin Léon. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Mary Finlay shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Margaret Qualley and Sigourney Weaver and Douglas Booth carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Philippe Falardeau directs. Sara Mishara behind the camera. Martin Léon scores. Mary Finlay cuts. Produced in Canada, Ireland. Dialogue in English, French, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 6 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, French, Spanish.
3International production across 2 countries: Canada, Ireland.
4291+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
5Directed by Philippe Falardeau, shot by Sara Mishara. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Martin Léon. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Mary Finlay shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Margaret Qualley and Sigourney Weaver and Douglas Booth carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "The true story of a literary education.".
10IMDB entry: tt2222052 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 19 themes, including "new york city", "based on novel or book", "roommates", "romance".

The technical file

Cinematography: Sara Mishara
Original score: Martin Léon
Editing: Mary Finlay
Production design: Elise de Blois
Costume design: Ann Roth
Makeup / hair: Joan Patricia Parris
Sound: Fionn Higgins
Runtime: 101 min · 1h 41m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $236,653
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: My Salinger Year (2020)

Also by

Philippe Falardeau

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

tmdb280390232022-08-28
★ 1/10
J.D. Salinger didn’t write to be read – or seen. The author of The Catcher in the Rye stopped publishing in 1965 – but continued writing until his death 45 years later –, and long before that he had made up his mind to refuse to allow film adaptations of his work (a non-acceptance that has miraculously survived him). As a result, the lazy and the uncreative have had to find alternative avenues for profiting from Salinger's work. The most recent example of this is My Salinger Year, a drama written and directed by Philippe Falardeau, based on Joanna Rakoff's memoir of the same name. In 1995, Joanna (Margaret Qualley), an aspiring writer and poet, moves to New York, where she gets a job at one of New York's oldest literary agencies. Unbeknownst to Joanna, the agency looks after the interests of notoriously reclusive writer J. D. Salinger (additionally, she moves into an apartment with her new boyfriend, who is writing a novel, which, when finished, fits perfectly inside a thin manila envelope; I’d venture that perhaps the envelope contains a flash drive with the book in it, but this is the mid-90s, after all). Joanna's duties include responding to Salinger's voluminous fan mail. According to agency policy, Joanna replies with a generic formula explaining that Salinger does not read fan letters (and if the letters were anything like the ones in the movie, he wasn't missing much – and neither were we). She, however, becomes tempted to write back something with a little more substance to certain Salinger fans – though not having read any of his work (not even Catcher), it’s hard to tell what led her to believe she was qualified to become Salinger’s self-appointed mouthpiece. The only reason the writer's last name appears in the title of this movie is to lure unsuspecting viewers into watching it in hopes of learning something valuable about Salinger. As it turns out, though, the plot has little or nothing to do with the author (and it isn’t even clever enough to be a pastiche like Igby Goes Down) except a perverse eagerness to pry into and exploit his two most valued possessions: his privacy and his art. Consider this: in May 1986, Salinger discovered that British writer Ian Hamilton intended to publish a biography that made extensive use of letters Salinger had written to other authors and friends. Salinger sued to stop publication of the book, and in Salinger v. Random House, the court ruled that Hamilton's extensive use of the letters, including quoting and paraphrasing, was not acceptable as the author's right to control publication overrode the right of fair use. It doesn't take a genius to conclude that Salinger wouldn't be much happier with a book and film based on correspondence that he didn't read – let alone replied to –, starring a character who has deliberately avoided the author’s oeuvre, because she wants to be “provoked,” not “entertained.” All things considered, My Salinger Year is neither provocative nor entertaining.

Production companies