Salinger (2013)

           This documentary has enough hype and melodramatic music to flirt with phoniness, which is wonderfully ironic given JD Salinger's disdain for fakery. Still, it's hard not to like a movie about one of America's most famous and famously reclusive writers. A dozen or so talking heads narrate the main features of Salinger's life, from his privileged upbringing on Park Avenue in NYC to his death at age 91 in 2010 in Cornish, New Hampshire, where he had lived in seclusion since 1953. They give special emphasis to his war experience — Salinger landed on Normandy Beach on D-Day, and saw active combat for almost 300 days. They also chronicle his several relationships with significantly younger women, and, of course, the publication of Catcher in the Rye in 1951 (60 million copies sold). The movie says that beginning in 2015 there will be five new Salinger books published. This movie and a companion biography were released together at the same time.