Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
An in-depth investigation into the private world of the American writer J. D. Salinger (1919-2010), who lived most of his life behind the impenetrable wall of a self-imposed seclusion: how his dramatic experiences during World War II influenced his life and work, his relationships with very young women, his obsessive writing methods, his many literary secrets.
Salinger (2013) is a documentary portrait that benefits from genuinely rare access to archival material and interviews with people close to the famously reclusive author, giving it modest novelty value. The structure traces his wartime trauma, creative obsessions, and troubling relationships with young women in a reasonably compelling arc. However, the filmmaking itself is fairly conventional for a literary biography documentary — talking heads, archival photos, dramatic readings — and the cinematography offers little visual distinction. The acting category here applies loosely to interview subjects and dramatic recreations, which are unremarkable. The ending, teasing unreleased posthumous works, generates intrigue but feels somewhat manipulative as a closing device. Overall a competent, occasionally revelatory doc that will satisfy fans of Salinger but breaks little new ground in the documentary form.