Rebel in the Rye: Aux origines de l'Attrape-coeurs

I'm not a Salinger fan by any means, so if I loved this movie it must have something going for it. Danny Strong is one of the best writers in Hollywood, and he creates a fast-moving and compulsively watchable story about a young man burning with ambition. Only young J. D. Salinger's ambition is not for wealth and fame. He wants to write a great book, and he wants to do it his way.

Nothing is more boring than watching writers write in a movie. But Danny Strong manages to make it exciting because we actually see Salinger learning from his mistakes and even more tellingly, learning to accept criticism from his mentor, his agent, and his publisher. By the time he's come back from the war, badly shell-shocked, and has to literally learn how to write all over again, you're completely in his corner. And the movie feels more like ROCKY than SYLVIA.

So why didn't I give this movie ten stars? Well, for one thing, too many of the party scenes looked like advertisements for alcohol and tobacco products. Late in the film, Salinger finds a guru who tells him to give up all "distractions," but it's telling that they never discuss cigarettes and alcohol as problems in their own right. Because of course nobody ever heard of a great writer succumbing to alcoholism.

The other problem is the supporting cast. They're not bad, they're sensational. Kevin Spacey plays the Columbia writing professor like he's lovable old Mr. Chips. But it's a palpable schoolboy fantasy. I went to Columbia, and let me tell you, most English professors were closer to the Drill Instructor in Kubrick's FULL METAL JACKET. No matter what kind of work you turned in, they always made you feel like Private Pyle. Nobody was looking to uncover any geniuses when I was there, and nobody ever did!

Then there's Sarah Paulson as Dorothy, the world's most sultry and stunning literary agent. She's got the goods, all right. And she plays every scene like she's Lauren Bacall putting the moves on Bogart in TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT. The problem is, young J. D. Salinger is not Bogart. He's closer to Wilmer in THE MALTESE FALCON. So when Dorothy caresses him with casual endearments like "my darling," and "my love," you feel like it's either crude manipulation or writer Danny Strong giving in to his own teenage fantasies. It would have been nice to see Dorothy buttering up other writers, or maybe just making with the golf sticks, like the agent in SUNSET BOULEVARD.

So overall, a fun movie with a lot of excitement, but not really as hard hitting as it pretends to be. Holden saw phonies everywhere, but this movie pretends they don't exist. It's really pretty goddamn shallow, if you want to know the truth.

This may be an old-fashioned bio-pic, but there's nothing terribly wrong with that. It's subject is intriguing, the story it tells is emotionally engaging and - unlike so many recent, showier bio-pics (The Imitation Game springs immediately to mind) - it doesn't play so fast and loose with the facts that you're left questioning whether it was really worth the effort. It's slickly directed and boasts a cast of extremely fine actors, among them Victor Garber, Hope Davis, Jefferson Mays and Sarah Paulson. But the two main reasons for watching are Nicholas Hoult and Kevin Spacey. Hoult gives his best performance since A Single Man, while Spacey (as Salinger's teacher and mentor) pretty much steals every scene he's in. If recent revelations result in Spacey being forever black-listed by Hollywood it will be a great shame.

A fascinating portrait of J.D. Salinger. My concern is that people may skip it due to the Kevin Spacey scandal. it deserves consideration.

Some of Nicholas Hoult 's best work. He really gets into character, becoming someone I've never seen him be before. I've seen him take the lead in Warm Bodies, and Kill Your Friends both excellent movies (Also Jack the Giant Slayer which is OK) but this felt slightly more unique. Helping in this transformation, is Kevin Spacey who does a great job of electrifying the screen playing a man truly passionate about what he does, and a mentor to J.D. Salinger. Also like Hope Davis as Salinger's mom and wanted to point that out (and the fact that it feels like the same role she did in Captain America: Civil War)

What I love most about this movie is how it made me interested in Catcher in the Rye. I am familiar with the book and how notorious it is among literature, but I never read it myself. Not much of a book worm. The movies portrait of the man is truly rebellious. Rebel in the Rye gives the impression that his fame comes from the idea that he was bold enough to do it first like the Ramones or Prince (More of a music geek) and in his boldness touched a generation that had not really been spoken to before. A generation that would put him on a pedestal that made the war vet uncomfortable. His choice not to publish any more I was slightly aware of, but the movie does make me very intrigued about what else may be accurate (or inaccurate) .

Nicholas Hoult has done a great job driving this spectacular vehicle.

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This is an interesting and involving biopic of the reclusive author of Catcher in the Rye. I found it attractively filmed and giving enough insight into his life, WW2 experiences, struggles with getting published, creative process and personal life. It's a nice change from those overly angst filled salacious biopics that focus too much on the unsavory aspects of a creative genius.

Nicholas Hoult is watchable and does a reasonably good job in the role. He may not have been the first person one would think of since he is an English actor and quite different looking from the real person. Would have thought they would have chosen an actor with Jewish heritage.

The supporting cast all perform well. Sarah Paulson is good as a literary agent. Kevin Spacey in one of his last roles before the scandal brought his career to a halt plays his writing teacher who helped him in the beginning. Hope every movie that is affected by scandal of one of the actors isn't shelved or not released. Too many other people's efforts would be wasted.