Igby Goes Down

Rating:
Summary: Culkin shines in this quirky coming-of-age film
Review: "Igby Goes Down," written and directed by Burr Steers, stars Kieran Culkin as the curiously named title character (the disturbing story behind this unusual name is revealed during the course of the film). Igby is a troubled youth who has been expelled from several schools and is in constant conflict with his overbearing mother, Mimi (played by Susan Sarandon). The film explores Igby's interconnected relationships with his circle of family and friends in and around New York City as he gropes his way towards young adulthood.

This is a quirky story that is well acted by a stellar cast. Sarandon is a true force of nature as a mother-from-hell (who at one point is compared to Medea). Superb performances are also turned in by Jeff Goldblum (as Igby's rich, sleazy godfather), Ryan Phillipe (as Igby's annoyingly perfect golden-boy older brother), Claire Danes (as a friend of Igby's), and Rory Culkin (as the younger Igby seen in flashbacks). But the film is really Kieran Culkin's, and he is outstanding. He brings to life all aspects of this complicated character, from his ironic world-weariness to visceral pain.

"Igby" contains some clever dialogue and features some great chemistry among the cast. Often funny, the film also has some really painful, harrowing scenes. Overall, it's a solid coming-of-age story that, I believe, well demonstrates Kieran Culkin's ability as a cinematic leading man.

Rating:
Summary: Kieran Culkin's triumph
Review: Not every movie starts with a pair of teenage boys painstakingly killing their mother, and even fewer could make you like those boys. But "Igby Goes Down" actually manages to do this. It's a coming-of-age story (much as I hate the phrase) with humor and poignancy, and it's a hard role that the fantastic Kieran Culkin pulls off.

Igby's father (Bill Pullman) is in a mental home, his mother Mimi (Susan Sarandon) is a pill-popping harpy, his godfather D.H. (Jeff Goldblum) is humorously scruple-free, and his brother Oliver (Ryan Phillippe) is cold-blooded and mercenary. Igby himself (Kieran Culkin) is a perpetual dropout who deliberately fails at every prep school he's sent to, and then he runs away from a cab taking him back to military school. Free at last of his suffocating upper-crust life, Igby secretly moves into the loft apartment of D.H.'s dancer-junkie mistress Rachel (Amanda Peet).

At first, things are okay for Igby, especially after he meets and falls for a cynical, ice-cream-eating college student named Sookie Sapperstein (Claire Danes). But when his brother disrupts his love life, his godfather finds out about Igby's relationship with Rachel, and Mimi's cancer grows worse, Igby begins to go down... unless he can break away to freedom.

One of the most unique aspects of "Igby Goes Down" is that a concrete reason is given for the lead character to rebel. Most rebels don't have a cause. But Igby rebels not just out of unhappiness, but out of fear that he (like his father) will "go down." One of the most moving parts of this film is when a young Igby (played by Kieran's little brother Rory) sees his father come unglued in the shower. An equally memorable scene has Igby hollowly repeating his father's words at his own reflection.

The humor is mainly of the weirder sort, like half the people in the cast punching Igby (even his SHRINK!), Mimi sitting on the maid's head, or the disgruntled drag queen ("Lucky... CHARMS!"). The dialogue is witty and full of little quotable insults. Kids probably shouldn't see this movie -- there's nudity, a couple of bedroom scenes, cursing and a few scenes involving suicide.

Kieran Culkin is brilliant in this film, which has garnered some of the recognition he deserves. Susan Sarandon seems to revel in her role as the mother-from-hell, and while I didn't like Ryan Phillippe in "Gosford Park," his cold acting fits the role of Oliver. Goldblum seems to be revelling just as much as Sarandon as Oliver's future self; Claire Danes, when she doesn't cry, is fantastic as the wannabe-cynic Sookie, who is obviously just as confused as Igby.

"Igby Goes Down" is worth watching, if nothing else, because of Culkin's fantastic acting. But it's also witty, sad, weird, and quite well-written. One of the best indie films of 2002 -- and that's saying a lot.

Rating:
Summary: A poetic movie
Review: I cant believe how closely this resembled my high school life going to a new england prep school-the same angst..the weight that Igby talks about...the end of innocence. I thought that the main actor was incredible in this part. Beautiful and gawky with the right amount of smart ass and broken little boy. This movie combines this sad wistful spirit with an amazing sarcastic humor. The Characters are wonderful, the story is amazing, the setting (NYC) is perfect and the soundtrack is perfect. This movie reminds me of a beautiful Japanese poem; wistful, deep, entertaining and an experience to dwell on and repeat.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Igby Goes Down is a terrific dark dramedy, due mostly to Kieran Culkin's ridiculously sincere performance. Had another lead actor lent only a bland, sub-level performance, it would have been impossible for the viewer to ever sympathize with such a pitiful snot-nosed character as Igby, but Culkin truly shines, and makes with movie worthwhile, most notably in the scene where he begs Sookie to leave with him, trying to convince her that his brother doesn't love her. Susan Sarandon is delightfully sadistic and Jeff Goldblum, who hasn't been terribly busy lately is pitch perfect as D.H. Amanda Peet is a beast, but that was intentional. The only acting that stuck out as majorly sub-par was Ryan Phillippe. He played Oliver like some obnoxious characature of the stereotypical "young republican", right down to the - there's no more accurate word to describe it - snooty voice. I cringed when I heard that. Besides that, I was very impressed. This film, along with his other '02 film, "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys", put Kieran Culkin close to the top of my list of favorite actors. This movie's very good.

Rating:
Summary: CRACKLING DIALOG IN A GRITTY BOHEMIAN DARK COMEDY
Review: If you enjoy narratives like American Beauty or Catcher in the Rye, you must watch this under-rated dramedy. Sufficiently quaint characters, a murky and disturbing story that manages to hold up because of its laconic wit, and a brilliant cast all round.

Culkin does fairly well in his role as a precocious kid who school-hops more often than he change his clothes, hates his quirky family (mother, father, brother all roles played by A-list stars), and eventually goes on the lam.

On the run in the big city, he meets up with various eccentrics: he finds refuge with his godfather's trophy girlfriend, a heroin addict played by Amanda Peet and her arty, bizarre friends. When this relationship sours he finds better solace with Sookie Saperstein (Claire Danes), a bored, ironic college student temporarily on the run from college.

It may be flawed and occasionally embittering. It may be (intentionally) artsy and ultimately obscure. But this stunning debut is an absolutely watchable treat that I'd recommend in a blink if you care about cinema that evokes thought.

Rating:
Summary: Too Much!
Review: There could have been a great movie here, maybe even two great movies, but there's too much on the plate. The obvious comparison would be with "Catcher in the Rye" but the action in that is compressed into a short period of time, whereas "Igby" has enough backstory and sequel story to fill a mini-series, much less an hour and a half movie! The film is truly exhilarating from the moment Igby jumps out of the limo to escape prep school to the moment he catches his Godfather with his pants down -- I would have liked to have seen the movie concentrate those months and not try so hard to paint a larger canvas. The filmmaker/writer can't resist a clever line or poignant situation until the whole thing collapses in melodrama. It's even untrue to the "black comedy" it attempts, backing away from the provocative first scene to make it almost sentimental and giving Igby a very mechanistic explanation for being so difficult. The middle section deserves to be amplified and I think there's also a good movie about a disfunctional family with a schizophrenic dad and an uptight mom in here but this isn't it!

Rating:
Summary: What Kind of Name is Igby?
Review: The kind of name a person named Sookie should not be asking about. In high school we have all read The Catcher in the Rye and we all for some odd reason really liked it well Igby Goes Down is sort of a modern version of Catcher in the Rye except with a few little differences. The story is that this boy named Igby (Kieron Culkin) has two very weird and not very good parents and to make matters worse currently he is in milatary school so he decides to escape and go live with this girl (Amanda Peet). While he is there he meet Sookie (Claire Danes) and thinks that he is falling in love. But during the entire story his life is falling down but can it be rebuilt. I would recommend this movie to people who are 14 and older because there is some suggestive dialouge and language and although it is R rated all of my friends and I saw it when we were 14. I hope that this review has been helpful to you in making a decision about the movie Igby Goes Down.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie, but what's up this video?!
Review: Did I get the wrong video somehow? One of the best things about this movie (in the theatre) was the haunting refrain that you could also hear on the Igby Goes Down website. It's been a while since I saw the movie in the theatre but I couldn't have remembered it *this* incorrectly. Specifically, the music that helped make all of the scenes multi-layered and somewhat sad has apparently been replaced with the score from "The Parent Trap" -- you know, that kind of "screwball comedy" background music. Um, huh?

It seems to me that maybe even some scenes have been spliced together differently -- was the beginning really like that in the theatre? Maybe I'm wrong there. But the goofy music...

If anyone can solve this mystery for me, please do. I'm considering sending this tape back to Amazon for my money back.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Bother...
Review: The sometimes stellar acting cannot save this film from itself. I went in expecting something great, especially from all the hype that enveloped this movie during it's theatrical release. I was treated instead to a bland and pointless Catcher in the Rye rip-off that goes nowhere.
The movie strives to be great, and I kept expecting it to do something--anything--but fall flat. The worst part is that this should have been good; I wanted it to be a good film, as there's a real lack of stories of this nature. The only saving grace was the performance of Jeff Goldblum, and a few snatches of nice dialogue that are wasted on the end result. In contrast to other reviews, I didn't find Culkin's performance especially notable, either.
If you're looking for a story with a similar underlying theme, I suggest reading Salinger's novel.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling coming-of-age tale
Review: When Igby Goes Down hit theatres last year it disappeared despite its stellar cast and positive reviews. It's not really a movie to everyone's taste that's true, but this slice of Catcher In The Rye-type teenage angst is never short of compelling. The story has Igby (Culkin) being kicked out of every school his mother Mimi (Sarandon) places him in, eventually dropping out to experience the boredom, despair and decadence of those around him.

The acting is pitch perfect. Kieran Culkin makes you honestly believe that he was born to play a role like this, a young man desperate to never conform, terrified that any passion in him will be crushed in the same way his father's (Pullman) spirit was obliterated, eventually landing him in an institution. Sarandon, as ever, lends the proceedings some class as the rich snobby mother who cares not one jot for her family. Goldblum plays the confident man surprisingly well considering his past affinity at playing the nervous type in movies such as The Fly. Ryan Phillipe impresses again in a role in which he's dangerously close to being typecast in - the upper-class snob. His roles in Gosford Park and Cruel Intentions were great, and it's clear here that he should stick to fare such as this rather than trash like Antitrust. I'd never seen Amanda Peet in anything before this but she plays her drug-addled character (really a symbol of the very depths of despair, something Igby wishes to experience but doesn't want to overrule him) so well that it can't belong before she becomes a bigger star. Clare Danes seems to gradually be clawing a comeback with small roles like this and in The Hours. She's perfect for the role and, importantly, we can see why Igby would be attracted to her charatcer. A wannabe Bohemian rebel with a quirky personality, she's great value. It's a cult cast really, filled with actors from cult movies such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Fly and up-and-comers like Culkin and Danes. Unfortunartely, despite its many qualities, it's doubtful that Igby will ever make it to cult status. Released too soon over the admitedly far superious Donnie Darko, it's a little bit swamped by its presence as a movie that gained cult status in under a year and it's unlikely that Culkin will have the success that the Gyllenhaal siblings experienced in The Good Girl and Secretary respectively. However, this is a real gem of a movie that deserves to be viewed and appreciated on its own merits and as such, it's really quite impressive.