My Salinger Year

Set in 1995, Joanna, an aspiring writer and poet, leaves Berkeley, California and her boyfriend Karl and moves to New York City and takes a job at one of New York’s oldest literary agencies run by Margaret. Unbeknownst to Joanna, the agency looks after the interests of the notoriously reclusive writer J. D. Salinger. She has not read any of Salinger's books, including The Catcher in the Rye. She moves into an apartment with a new boyfriend, Don. Margaret does not believe that computers are helpful and makes Joanna type letters for her using a typewriter. In her time at the agency, Joanna's responsibilities include responding to the large volume of fan mail that Salinger is sent. As was agency policy, Joanna responds with a generic response that explained that Salinger did not read fan mail however, she is tempted to give a proper reply to some of Salinger's fans. Her period at the agency coincides with Salinger's proposed publication of the Hapworth 16, 1924 short story that had previously been published in The New Yorker. She helps liaise with the small publisher and goes to Georgetown University for a meeting between Salinger and the publisher, which also coincides with a concert that her old boyfriend is performing in Washington D.C. . Margaret starts to trust Joanna more and lets her read some manuscripts and articles. Don and Joanna are invited to the wedding of Don's best friend, but Don does not initially tell Joanna as he wants to go on his own. While Don is away, Joanna decides to leave him and move out. Joanna sells her first book for the agency and is offered a bigger role at the agency however, she wants to pursue her dream of becoming a writer and quits.

• Margaret Qualley as Joanna
• Sigourney Weaver as Margaret
• Douglas Booth as Don
• Colm Feore as Daniel
• Seána Kerslake as Jenny
• Brían F. O'Byrne as Hugh
• Xiao Sun as Lisa
• Théodore Pellerin as Boy from Winston-Salem
• Yanic Truesdale as Max
• Hamza Haq as Karl
• Leni Parker as Pam

The film is based on Rakoff's 2014 memoir depicting her time working at literary agency Harold Ober Associates, who acted for Salinger.[2] Phyllis Westberg was Salinger's agent at the time that Rakoff was at the agency (a character called Margaret in the film)[2] and she took over running the agency in 1998.[3]

In February 2019, Margaret Qualley and Sigourney Weaver joined the cast of the film, with Philippe Falardeau directing from a screenplay he wrote. Margaret was to star as Rakoff and Weaver as Margaret, Rakoff's boss. Kim McCraw, Susan Mullen, Luc Déry and Ruth Coady serving as producers under their micro_scope and Parallel Films banner, respectively.[4] In May 2019, Colm Feore, Seána Kerslake and Théodore Pellerin joined the cast of the film, with Mongrel Media and Thunderbird Releasing distributing in Canada and Ireland, with principal photography beginning that month.[5]

The film had its world premiere at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival on February 20, 2020.[6][7] Shortly after, IFC Films acquired distribution rights to the film.[8]

Rotten Tomatoes collected 17 reviews and identified 59% of them as positive, giving the film an average rating of 5.92/10.[9] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian panned the film, awarding it one out of five stars and calling it a "bafflingly insipid, zestless, derivative film – a simperingly coy knock-off of The Devil Wears Prada without the sexiness and fun."[10]

• My Salinger Year on IMDb