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IMDbPro

My Salinger Year

  • 2020
  • R
  • 1h 41m
IMDb RATING
6.5/10
5.9K
YOUR RATING
Sigourney Weaver and Margaret Qualley in My Salinger Year (2020)
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-paneled 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.
Play trailer2:07
3 Videos
61 Photos
Drama

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

  • Director
    • Philippe Falardeau
  • Writers
    • Philippe Falardeau
    • Joanna Smith Rakoff
    • Catherine Kidd
  • Stars
    • Margaret Qualley
    • Sigourney Weaver
    • Douglas Booth
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    6.5/10
    5.9K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Philippe Falardeau
    • Writers
      • Philippe Falardeau
      • Joanna Smith Rakoff
      • Catherine Kidd
    • Stars
      • Margaret Qualley
      • Sigourney Weaver
      • Douglas Booth
    • 62User reviews
    • 77Critic reviews
    • 50Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 3 nominations

    Videos3

    Official Trailer (2021)
    Trailer 2:07
    Watch Official Trailer (2021)
    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:20
    Watch Official Trailer
    My Salinger Year
    Trailer 2:22
    Watch My Salinger Year

    Photos61

    My Salinger Year (2020)
    Sigourney Weaver and Margaret Qualley in My Salinger Year (2020)
    Sigourney Weaver and Margaret Qualley in My Salinger Year (2020)
    Margaret Qualley in My Salinger Year (2020)
    Margaret Qualley in My Salinger Year (2020)
    My Salinger Year (2020)
    Seána Kerslake and Margaret Qualley in My Salinger Year (2020)
    Christine Lan in My Salinger Year (2020)
    Sigourney Weaver in My Salinger Year (2020)
    Douglas Booth and Margaret Qualley in My Salinger Year (2020)
    Margaret Qualley in My Salinger Year (2020)
    Margaret Qualley in My Salinger Year (2020)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Margaret Qualley
    Margaret Qualley
    • Joanna
    Sigourney Weaver
    Sigourney Weaver
    • Margaret
    Douglas Booth
    Douglas Booth
    • Don
    Seána Kerslake
    Seána Kerslake
    • Jenny
    Brían F. O'Byrne
    Brían F. O'Byrne
    • Hugh
    Colm Feore
    Colm Feore
    • Daniel
    Théodore Pellerin
    Théodore Pellerin
    • Boy from Winston-Salem
    Yanic Truesdale
    Yanic Truesdale
    • Max
    Hamza Haq
    Hamza Haq
    • Karl
    Leni Parker
    Leni Parker
    • Pam
    Ellen David
    Ellen David
    • Placement Agent
    Romane Denis
    Romane Denis
    • Girl Who Wants an A
    Tim Post
    Tim Post
    • J.D. Salinger
    Gavin Drea
    Gavin Drea
    • Mark
    Matt Holland
    Matt Holland
    • Clifford Bradbury
    Xiao Sun
    Xiao Sun
    • Lisa
    Andy Bradshaw
    • Veteran
    Christine Lan
    • Vietnamese Girl
    • Director
      • Philippe Falardeau
    • Writers
      • Philippe Falardeau
      • Joanna Smith Rakoff
      • Catherine Kidd
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Premiered as the opening film of the 2020 Berlinale.
    • Goofs
      Joanna, referencing U.C. Berkeley, says she's like "a big cloud of East Coast irony haunting Southern California," but Berkeley is in Northern California.
    • Quotes

      Joanna: The job of an agent is to open up opportunities for their clients, but, when it came to Salinger, the logic was reversed. We had to shield him from the outside world, bolstering his reputation as a complicated recluse.

    • Connections
      References Soy Cuba (1964)
    • Soundtracks
      Everyday
      Performed by Tinsley Ellis

      Written by Bob De Pugh (as Bob DePugh) and Tinsley Ellis

      Published by De Pugh Music, Frozen Inca Music

      Courtesy of Alligator Records

    User reviews62

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    Witty, charming, and based on a (mostly) true story.
    Joanna was studying to hone her literary skills, her ambition was to be a writer. But the job she was interviewing for, with a literary agency, didn't really want young writers, they wanted someone to assist the female boss and if successful might become a literary agent some day. So she had to constantly underplay her writing side.

    One of her tasks was to open and read letters to J. D. Salinger, the gem of the agency's clients. Eventually this resulted in her talking to Salinger, who they just called 'Jerry', by phone and receiving some advice and inspiration from him.

    Her job with the agency lasted most of the year 1996, eventually she was to write her memoir "My Salinger Year" and this movie is made from that. It isn't a dry account at all, we enjoyed that it contained a nice amount of whimsy. Some of the Salinger letter writers were visualized as real characters. One of them Joanna even talks to at times. At one point 5 or 6 of them are all on the train with her.

    A really well made and entertaining movie, Margaret Qualley is excellent in the Joanna role. Some of it was fictionalized, but the core of the story is factual. My wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library.

    Oct 2022 edit: Just watched it again after almost 10 months, I enjoyed it even more this time, knowing how the whole story would play out.
    helpful•9
    0
    • TxMike
    • Dec 29, 2021

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 5, 2021 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • Canada
      • Ireland
    • Official sites
      • Official site
      • Official site (Japan)
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • My New York Year
    • Filming locations
      • Montreal, Quebec, Canada
    • Production companies
      • micro_scope
      • Parallel Film Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $54,730
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $28,851
      • Mar 7, 2021
    • Gross worldwide
      • $972,010
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 41 minutes
    • Color
      • Color

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