Salinger

[MacGuffin]

Release date: September 5, 2013

Starring: JD Salinger (archival) Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, John Cusack, Martin Sheen, Tom Wolfe, Gore Vidal, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Judd Apatow

Directed by: Shane Salerno

Premise: An unprecedented look inside the private world of J.D. Salinger, the reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye.

[Reel]

This looks cool. I know nothing about Salinger and have only read 'Catcher In The Rye.' What would you recommend as his second best? On the commentary for Huckabees, David O. Russell really pushed 'Franny and Zooey' as being the first book to make him think about spirituality and the eventual inspiration for that movie. Tarantino has said 'The Glass Family Stories' influenced his writing style above all the other crime authors ( paraphrasing here ), that definitely piqued my interest. So what do literate folk here have to say about good ol' JD?

[Drenk]

Franny and Zooey is his best, I think. But you have to read Nine Stories before or just the short-story "A perfect day for bananafish"; it's the first Glass story. Franny and Zooey, Raise High the roofbeam, Carpenters and Seymour: an introduction are Glass stories too.

Oh, and by the way: Salinger-Freddie

[Mel]

Second trailer:

Last 20 seconds: is this shockumentary?

[Jeremy Blackman]

is this shockumentary?

Yes. It's apparently even worse than the trailer suggests.

I just listened to the Slate Culture Gabfest, and Julia Turner (Slate's deputy editor) said emphatically that this is the worst movie she's ever seen.

[Mel]

There are some reports of recut made by Harvey Weinstein - this is getting kinda silly.

[classical gas]

Yeah, this movie isn't that good, but if anyone is interested it's on netflix instant now. 

[Reel]

That might be the quickest netflix instant ever. Cool thx! If it's not good, maybe I'll learn about Salinger ( ?!?! )

[classical gas]

You will, but I felt that it spent more time on his love/personal life than his work.  And the soundtrack was a bit much at times.  It felt like a documentary made by the people at TMZ. 

That being said, it was far from the worst movie I've ever seen. 

[Reel]

I watched about 30 minutes and fell asleep last night, I can see what people are saying. Especially when it opens up with a paparazzi telling a tale of stalking him, WTF? Anyways, I'd rather watch a documentary about him than read a dumb book.

[samsong]

just to beat the horse dead, this is dreadful. 

i could see how going into this with the inkling of hope that this could in some way be a worthy tribute/examination of salinger could lead to disillusionment that would inspire a hyperbolic claim like, "worst ever."  it's on par with an e! true hollywood story, and i'd like to think that had the people involved known that the material they contributed was going to be put to use in this fashion, none of them would have agreed to be a part of it.  it sets a rather ambivalent tone and descends into almost an all-out character assassination, with a strange reversal in the finale moments that was just... confusing more than anything.  i expected bad and got worse than that, but in a really mediocre way.  i wouldn't even bother. 

salinger's writing is very dear to me and while that may be reason to just have ignored the existence of this documentary, i was compelled to see it for myself.  it felt like identifying the body of a loved one at a morgue.