Igby Goes Down

Rating:
Summary: Directionless Spoiled Rich Kid, Redux
Review: "Igby Goes Down", in the tradition of many "teenage boy coming of age" movie, bearing fair comparison to "The Graduate" and "Catcher in the Rye", with moments of the blackest comedy thrown in. It is an enjoyable film, mainly for the sharpness of the performances, as well as an equally sharp script that leaves no stone unturned, nor protects anyone.

It's the story of "Igby", so aptly nicknamed, as you will discover, whom cannot seem to get his feet firmly planted in his life. Yes, we've seen this story a thousand times, and a thousand times more. He wanders through his life, questioning everything, and everyone, under the sun; his pill-popping mother, distant brother, suspicious godfather and his trampy girlfriend, and even an odd love interest who is bitter yet reachable.

Fearing falling into the cliche trap, the script bops all over the place, making for some wonderfully surprising moments. Gore Vidal as a priest! Cynthia Nixon as a [substance] abusing former teacher! Were it not so believable, you'd be spending time waiting for the next celeb cameo. However, the strength of the writing is absurdly clear, both realistic and character illuminating.

Secondly, the performances stun and wonder. Kieran Culkin carries the film, making his angst believable but not overdramatic. Susan Sarandon can do no wrong, and makes the mother believable but not overdramatic. Ryan Phillipe irritates appropriately, Amanda Peet flutters through the film, and Claire Danes shines. Hook a film with a strong script and performances and you have a winner.

My only worries: we've seen the angst-ridden teenager before. It seems the beginning of the film flounders a bit as Igby flounders. It was distracting, but perhaps purposefully so. I found myself fighting to get into the movie, to even care about Igby, which I so wanted to do. He eventually comes around, and you do care, but it was like climbing walls.

Cheers to the filmmaker for this gutsy script, and cheers to Igby, hopefully by the end of the film, finding himself amongst the angst.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie
Review: the cast, the script, the whole flow is wonderful
great acting from the cast- they fit the roles perfectly
has a Salinger quality to it,
5 stars

Rating:
Summary: Igby Goes Down
Review: It will be said repeatedly that this film or piece of literature is remniscent of the story of Salinger's rebellious Holden Caufield; in this case, however, it is true. If literary fans will recall what made Holden so popular, it was his uncommon nature, which took the form of depression/failure/complexities; contrary to popular belief, it was not, in fact, the depression/failure/complexities. The same can be applied to Igby--what makes him so wonderful is not solely the depression or the failure or the complexities, because every other movie has a main character who posesses all of those traits. What makes Igby, and his story, so fascinating is the unusual circumstances his life takes place in. I fell into a mixture of love and disgust when I saw this film--it's a feeling that you never tire of.

Rating:
Summary: A bit over-extended and cliched.
Review: Growing pains? Or Growing pains of a rich and spoiled teenager who in the meantime trying too hard to get [fun] experiences? Murdering his mother with his brother or actually liberated her? Is this a dangerous suggestion to all the teenagers if they might have the same situation at home, in the family? Lots of purposeless ... ugliness of human relationship, too cliched to be appreciated. A very pretentious movie trying too hard to be looked as thoughtful and deep but turning out in the end shallow and mindless.

Rating:
Summary: Igby Thumbs Down
Review: Passé, joyless film peopled with pseudo-intellectual and emotionally constipated characters wandering around with nowhere to go "but down." Pessimists of the world unite.

Rating:
Summary: Stinging Performances Lift this Painful Comedy
Review: IGBY GOES DOWN offers plenty of pain and suffering with little in the way of character redemption -- only small, powerful grace notes, like the way Igby and the mother he supposedly despises suppress affectionate smiles for each other just before her death. It's that kind of movie and it's brilliant. Like a barb-wire version of RUSHMORE. The performances are exquisite, with Susan Sarandon and especially the under-rated Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman making their characters as palpable as a slap in the face.

Rating:
Summary: A Sunny Day
Review: This film is just fantastic. It's a dark comedy with a lot of life to it. The characters have depth and they have their faults as well as their redeeming qualities. The thing i really enjoyed about it was that unlike most movies these that have that everyone lives happily ever after ending, Igby Goes Down ends on with such realism and poignancy that you have to love it. The charisma of the actors and particularly Kieran Culkin as Igby is fascinating and endearing. And with fantasic wit and sarcasm the story of Igby is told with a straightforwardness and honesty that is scarce in most movies. It's an endearing piece, and i wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who needs something to perk up their day and lift their spirits.

Rating:
Summary: Eh-
Review: This is one of those movies where the director obviously knew what made a good movie, and decided to put all of those things in: wit, good music, ambiguous characters, sex, existentialism. And yet inspite of all of this, he somehow falls short. It has the feeling of a Catcher And The Rye meets The Graduate kind of movie, but again, it just doesn't live up to what it strives for. The characters are perhaps a little too ambiguous, if not dislikable, the story isn't terribly interesting, and the photography is... well... its in focus, but there's nothing spectacular to be found here. All in all it wasn't bad, but again, nothing special. If you want a good movie about a troubled youth, go watch The Butcher Boy, or read Catcher In The Rye.

Rating:
Summary: Misunderstood movie about a misunderstood young man
Review: "Igby Goes Down" was easily one of the best films from 2002. It storyline is perhaps not all that original: young, spoiled rich kid with family problems flees them by running off to the city to live in "a boho version of the Island of Lost Toys". But he winds up having to go home again to truly find himself. The End.

But there is much more to this film than that. First, there is unusual cinematography and great editing. There is a thumping, evocative soundtrack. But most of all there are great performances. Kieran Culkin officially gets my Most Underrated Actor of the Year award for this one. (While we're at it, let's award him the Most Talented Culkin Brother, By a Mile award as well.) For someone with comparatively little film experience, he holds his own and even steals some scenes from heavyweights like Susan Sarandon and Jeff Goldblum. Ryan Philippe should continue to play the stuck-up young Republican for the rest of his onscreen career--he has finally found a character that is suited to his wooden, deadpan style of acting. And Amanda Peet...well, who knew she could act? Maybe she, too, has found the character she should stick with from now on, but it seems to be more than that. I actually found the scene where she is covering her track marks to be one of the most emotionally affecting in the whole film.

There has been criticism that this movie is too unfeeling and dark for its own good, and that its emotional punch is lost in a mire of sarcasm. However, I fail to see how anyone could watch the heartbreaking scene between the young Igby and his father in the bathroom, when his father has his final breakdown, and accuse this film of having no emotional impact. It has also been said that the film rips off "Catcher in the Rye" but makes the hero an overprivileged brat. "Catcher in the Rye" was a great book, but it dealt with a class of people famous for overdramatizing their problems: teenagers. Holden's main complaint was that he just didn't fit in, which is a legitimate but somewhat immature motivation for all that follows in the book. Igby's character is just the same way: the film does not ask us to sympathize unconditionally with everything Igby does, and we are aware that many of his "problems" aren't really problems at all but are just things he will outgrow as he gets older. One can't blame Igby for being overly dramatic when be belongs to a social class that is constantly told they have no right to have problems.

This is not a feel-good film. There are some scenes that are a little weird, and the humor is not for everyone. But if you try and look at the protagonist as a kid not unlike yourself at his age, and root for him to outgrow his problems, the film can be quite affecting. It is a lucky person indeed who hasn't had a moment of utter despair like Igby has when Sookie tells him she won't go to California with him. Those moments force us to become adults, though, and I left this film thinking that in a few years, Igby was going to be just fine.

Rating:
Summary: Scathing and original black comedy
Review: "Igby Goes Down" is a dark comedy which echoes the best of the anti-establishment movies which thrived in America from the late 1960s through the 1970s. Some critics have compared it to "The Graduate", although the similarities escape me. Kieran Culkin may well be the next Dustin Hoffman, but the character he plays is someone I doubt that Benjamin Braddock, protagonist of "The Graduate", would have either understood or associated with. In tone and spirit, the movie reminds me personally of 1971's brilliant "Harold and Maude" [available on VHS and DVD]. Both films are acerbic and nihilistic on the surface, yet ultimately allow the main character to escape the harsh, utterly materialistic world into which he is born.

Igby [Culkin] lives in a world where social position and material possessions act as poor substitutes for love and affection. His father [Bill Pullman] is in a mental institution, perhaps driven there by his cold, shrewish mother [Susan Sarandon]. His brother [Ryan Phillippe] has adapted quite nicely to his environment and is headed for the top. Igby, though, is a tortured soul. At seventeen, he sees through the lies and deception which surround him and makes no effort to fit in. As in most dysfunction families, denial rules, and Igby is made out to be the problem. We watch, sometimes amused and sometimes horrified, as Igby plots to escape. Being a product of his environment, he is anything but a nice guy most of the time, yet we sense that there is much in him that is salvageable.

Culkin appeared in two of 2002's best independent films, "The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys" and this one. He is a wonderful young actor, sort of a cross between Robert Downey Jr., and Tobey Macguire. Besides Sarandon, Pullman and Phillippe, the first-rate supporting cast includes Jeff Goldblum, Amanda Peet and Clare Danes.

While "Igby Goes Down" does not always succeed, due to some rough-around-the-edges script elements, it is a fascinating portrait of a young man caught in a web of diabolical materialism. Highly recommended for those who appreciate some of the ironies of American life.