Igby Goes Down (2002) User Reviews (240)

A film that will stay with you

[FilmOtaku · 7/10 · 14 July 2003]

My first thought when I finished watching this film was, `I can't believe I really enjoyed a film that starred a Culkin.' My subsequent conclusions about the film were not as easily reached.

When I decided to watch this film, I was expecting The Royal Tennenbaums: Part 2. Rich family, the story takes place in a big city, eccentric characters. While both films share these elements, they are very different in that I considered The Royal Tennenbaums to be mostly a comedy; while Igby's few comedic moments are so dark one almost feels badly for chuckling. What this film is really about is family, but not just in the traditional sense. (What is more traditional than a disapproving mother who is more concerned about herself than anyone else in the family, a clinically schizophrenic father, and two brothers: the elder a narcissist (if not practical) and the younger, a rebellious 16 year old who is forced to change schools more often than most of us change our Glade Plug-Ins.) It is about family in any sense: Friends, strangers, anyone Igby encounters and tries to gain acceptance from.

Culkin's Igby, who looks like a waifish Harry Potter without the `imp factor', is an extremely conflicted character. We have seen rebellious types portrayed ad nauseum in films for decades, but it is a rare occasion when this person is both sympathetic and extremely intelligent. The character draws you in enough that you actually want to know why he acts the way he does, and you truly want him to find happiness. Unfortunately, it appears that when a door opens, it slams just as quickly. Culkin is truly fantastic in this role. He shoulders a character that is both intelligent enough to defend himself, yet vulnerable enough to give the impression of fragility. The rest of the cast is also decent, particularly Jeff Goldblum as D.H., a larger than life character who is conflicted in his own right. The story was just complicated enough to keep me very interested, while endearing and thought-provoking enough for me to reflect on it long after it was over.

I'm not entirely sure who I would recommend this film to, but if you are looking for a thought-provoking drama with some great acting, dialogue and story line I would definitely check this movie out. It has received some rave reviews and I believe they are well-deserved.

Sarcastic and vitriolic

[rwirtz · 8/10 · 14 September 2003]

I had to drive to effin Antwerp, Belgium to see this movie, because it was taken out of Dutch cinemas after running just for one week. And that is something that I don't understand, or maybe I do, because this is not the typical Hollywood feel-good movie. The story could have been based on a early nineties novel by Jay McInerney or Bret Easton Ellis, but it is an original screenplay by writer and director Burr Steers. The mood is very dark, the acting is top shelf and the oneliners are sharp as razorblades. Kieran Culkin and Ryan Philippe are perfectly (type)casted and the choice of music is plain wonderful. The scene where Igby runs off through Central Park accompanied by Coldplay's Don't Panic is close to perfection. I enjoyed this movie very much and I think it paints a very accurate picture of the lives of spoiled, rich kids. Go see it!

Surprisingly good

[janv-3 · 8/10 · 11 October 2003]

I was very impressed by the movie and all the actors taking part in it. The story is very rich and allows the spectator to get emotionally involved in multiple ways. There is a good thing about a movie that finishes and leaves you with the feeling of wanting to know more about many of the characters in the movie. I particularly love all the unexpected moments, lines and situations in the movie without being exagerated or out of place. Excellent, for people who wants to see something different and still mainstream.

Brilliant Filmmaking and Acting

[intuitive7 · 11 October 2002]

Ten out of ten. One of the greats, with memorable characters you'll think about for days. This great film got caught in MGM/UA distribution purgatory. If it could have busted out of the indy circuit from day one and gotten into general release, it would have been favorably compared with "The Graduate" and Kieran Culkin's performance with Dustin Hoffman's debut performance in that Mike Nichol's classic. MGM/UA blew it.

Culkin is a great young player with a look and resources evoking both Hoffman and Robert Downey. He's naturalistic and great to watch. Smart, funny, urbane writing by first time director Steers is never "on the nose". Yet underneath the evasive, sarcastic stripped down dialogue he pulls hard hitting emotions from his ensemble. Not a false or wasted scene and more than a few really powerful ones. Every player is at the top of their game, from Kieran Culkin to Amanda Peet, Jeff Goldblum to Susan Sarandon, Bill Pullman to Claire Danes to Ryan Phillippe. They're obviously guided by a director who knows how to work with an ensemble to get an overall tone.

Igby is the anti Ferris Beuhler - a smart wanna be who's wise mouth and attitude usually piss off those around him - his mother, his brother, his godfather. Torn between those who don't get him and those who do (Peet, Danes), Igby paints all his relationships with the same sarcastic brush, his vulnerability only busting out when he's pushed to the limit. Culkin's perfomance is not to be missed. The key women, Sarandon, Peet and Danes all play fully formed characters. Goldblum is perfect for his role, his usual facile acting style well suited to the South Hampton prince he plays; his best turn in years.

Seers has style and flow, and his final cut is aided by the excellent music choices he and his music supervisor, Nick Harcourt arrived at. Cameron Crowe couldn't do better. The Igby soundtrack is tres alt moderne and every cut is great.

Warning: Actors are blocked (brilliantly) for wide screen format. So this film will suffer from TV / video screen ratios as the Graduate does. Either go see it in the theater NOW or wait for letterbox!

The Catcher in the Rye

[caspian1978 · 7/10 · 19 February 2004]

Cuklin is 100% Holden. The Catcher in the Rye will most likely never be made into a motion picture, still, they got to make Igby Goes Down and that is close enough. An excellent all around cast. Many surprises including a great story and an innocent ending that makes you 'glad' you saw the movie. Susan Sarandon is terrific in her supporting role and Culkin has proved himself as a leading man.

Can I get a D? Can I get a Y? Can I get an S? Can I get a -functional family?

[Polaris_DiB · 6/10 · 8 October 2008]

Looking back, it seems American indie filmmakers in the late 90's, early millenial were just crawling over each other to find a way of representing the more dysfunctional family. Igby Goes Down is a good movie, and has its exceptional moments, but time is already starting to drag on this one.

Igby is rich, he keeps getting kicked out of school, his father is insane, he hates his mother, his brother is a "Young Republican", his Godfather is Jeff Goldblum, and he just is feeling so darned existential all the time. He runs around New York being phony (hence the thousands of people comparing him to Holden Caulfield), attends parties in which he feels alienated (hence the thousands of people comparing him to Ben Braddock), and purposefully attempts to make things awkward to get the attention of his mother (hence my comparing him to Harold Chasen). He's also a teenager's wish fulfillment fantasy as he manages to sleep with hot women who are either not concerned with having a relationship or pleasantly reject him so that he can feel more alienated, run around New York being gloomy and hep, and, well, get his parents out of the way from time to time.

Hey, I'm not complaining: all of that is good justification for watching this movie. However, not all of it was all that great. One of the things that kind of ruined it for me was the character Sookie's relationship with Igby and his brother. Now, I'm sorry, but who starts relationships with two brothers based entirely on their bemoaning hatred of their mother? Really, who does that? "Oh, give me more of that angry childhood trauma, baby, you talk so sexy..." Nonetheless, most of the beginning is funny, the scene that bookmarks the movie is really cool, and its episodic structure helps it keep moving (this movie is kind of like the weather: if you don't like the scene, it will probably soon change).

Anyway, cute film.

--PolarisDiB

Holden Caulfield with a Harry Potter scarf

[Rogue-32 · 8/10 · 16 September 2002]

I'm very pleased to see other reviewers comparing Kieran Culkin's character Jason/Igby to The Catcher in the Rye's Holden Caulfield - while watching the film I was thinking the same thing, much to writer/director Burr Steers' credit. This is THE Social Commentary movie I have been waiting to see for a long time now - fearless, witty, arch, poignant without being sentimental, and, best of all, the characters are not one-dimensional, they all live and breathe and we feel the agony they are suffering behind their socially privileged masks.

Culkin is especially brilliant (and so sad, with his Harry Potter scarf - a young wizard without any magic), but everyone shines here - Sarandon, Pullman, Danes, Amanda Peet, Ryan Phillippe, Jeff "how-can-I-be-any-creepier" Goldblum, and of course Jared Harris, who positively reeks eccentricity without even having to open his mouth (but when he does, it's always good too). A fine first film from a director/writer who definitely bears watching.

Rushmore redux

[quiet-4 · 6/10 · 26 February 2009]

I found this to be a second-rate rehash of Rushmore. Second-rate movies being almost as good as first-rate, that means this is a pretty good film. Just not as good as Rushmore.

I am not sure why they require a minimum of 10 lines in each comment, but the above three lines encapsulate all I have to say about Igby Goes Down, and the rest of this is just filler. I apologise, but then again I didn't make up the 10 line rule. I'm not sure if the blank lines between paragraphs count (probably not), but at this point I'm only up to 9 lines. Just a few more words of blather and I'll be good to go. Is this far enough? We'll see...

Quirky, Darkly Funny Coming Of Age Story With An Amazing Cast

[gogoschka-1 · 8/10 · 11 February 2018]

Igby caught me by surprise; I hadn't heard much of the film before seeing it and rented it on a hunch. What a beautiful, weird, sad, funny coming-of-age story and what a cast. The performances throughout are amazing. I absolutely adore this film. 8 stars out of 10

In case you're interested in more underrated masterpieces, here's some of my favorites:

imdb.com/list/ls070242495

Impressive but dark

[rosscinema · 7/10 · 22 September 2002]

Very well written and acted but the whole theme and tone of the film makes it hard to root for. Very dark and satirical story is like "The Catcher in the Rye" written by an extremely angry person. The acting is good by Kieran Culkin who has easily surpassed his brother in the acting department but the performance that stood out for me is Claire Danes. She sort of looks like Franka Potente now but she's blossoming nicely into a solid actress. The writing is sharp but lets face it, no one really talks like this in real life. And that is why I didn't enjoy this film more. Also, Ryan Phillipe seems to be playing the same character he always does in movies. So while I was impressed with the acting and writing and the overall look of the film the black comedy and dark tone and theme make it impossible to embrace completely. I'll admire it, but from a distance.

unpleasant

[cherold · 4/10 · 5 June 2004]

Movie about a snotty, self-involved brat surrounded by other snotty, self-involved people. Aiming for the Catcher in the Rye sensibility, the movie suffers because the main character is just as unpleasant and hypocritical as the characters he disdains. He was an arrogant little creep feeling sorry for himself and somehow seducing women in spite of little real charm.

Of course, it would have helped if this movie had been, as so many people on this site insist, funny. I watched an hour waiting for it to be funny, and except for a somewhat clever comment about Jesus Christ it's really not funny in the least. In the end, a good cast was wasted on pretentious drivel about unlikeable people.

Weird and Wonderful!

[Spaceygirl · 10/10 · 5 January 2005]

Kieran Culkin astounds in "Igby goes down". While the supporting cast (Jeff Goldblum, Susan Sarandon, Ryan Phillipe and Claire Danes) are predictably good, he turns in an electrifying performance. The script is simply superb and the backdrop of New York is wonderful. The master stroke is the use of Rory Culkin as a younger Igby which lends an authentic air of continuity. The only disappointment is Amanda Peet who, as usual, overacts and hams it up as the highly-strung on/off girlfriend. Jeff Goldblum is surprisingly sexy in a role which he seems very comfortable with while Bill Pullman is surprisingly weighty in a minor yet key role which he pulls off extremely well.

Coulda, shoula been better

[=G= · 6/10 · 5 February 2003]

"Igby Goes Down" is a condescending, pedantic, darkly comedic misanthro-pic about a rich kid (Culkin) who has too little love and too much attitude...etc. In spite of its critical plaudits; excellent acting (no stretching); and slick, dialed-in synthesis, this film really sucked. Personally I was bored with it from the get go, utterly and completely detatched, and toughed it out with a piecemeal watch. What could have been a good drama was scuttled with a black skew, much too clever script, obvious but purposeless stereotyping, an unabashed absence of humanity, and zero audience empathy. Good fodder for self indulgent critics, buffs, dilettantes, etc. For those who just want entertainment, forget it. (B-)

Man I hated this movie

[billbene · 1/10 · 7 April 2003]

From the first minute to the last, there was not a single likeable character in this film. Are we really supposed to be rooting for pathetic Igby? The slutty women he comes across? His philandering God-father? Not to mention his mother or brother. I hated every person, as not one of them had a single redeeming quality. Oh, Bill Pullman's character wasn't a bad guy, for what that was worth. Awful, awful film.

Smart movie with good performances

[Danny_G13 · 16 June 2003]

There's no question aspects of this are quite brutal. But the theme of the story dictates they would be so.

Igby Goes Down is about a kid in nowhere's land. He doesn't know where he's going in life and responds to this by being a rebel in everything. Add to this his parental instability with a schizophrenic father and a tyrannical mother and you can understand why he'd be a little mixed up.

In many ways it is a coming of age story, but in others it is too dark to be that. Indeed there is an ambivalence of themes with hope and despair featured in equal measure.

As Igby, Kieran Culkin excels. He's outstanding, the best thing in the movie - which given the quality of his peers, such as a sinister and agenda-ridden Jeff Goldblum, a monstrous and hierarchial Susan Sarandon, a confused and tortured Bill Pullman and a squeaky clean upstart in Ryan Phillippe, is no mean feat at all.

Performances are uniformly excellent, the story involving, and the themes well explored.

Well done all round.

Both Igby and the Story get lost

[Tiger_Mark · 7/10 · 11 March 2004]

"Igby Goes Down" is a little bit "Catcher in the Rye", a little bit "The Wonder Boys" and a little bit Fox television. It seems loaded with potential at the start with several clever one-liners and hip music. We see a Holden Caufield for the new millenium in young Igby, as confused as ever. However, as we watch Igby wander about aimlessly, we also see a plot wander with him. There seems to be no real structure here. I realize that the story is not traditional and therefore maybe it should not be structured as so, but it could still be tightened up a bit. As the film starts to move toward a more structured storyline in the end, it starts to feel somewhat uninspired and dull. I guess you can't win for losing. I won't give it a failing mark, because it was a film that took chances and I admire that. However, I cannot call it very good either. I guess both Igby and the director were a tad bit confused.

Best film I've seen in 2003

[bluestrat · 7/10 · 23 May 2003]

If a typical Hollywood cliche ridden, predictable, cookie-cutter film is your comfort do not see this movie! Great performances along with well written and intelligent scenes are the foundation of this movie.

On the contrary, I thought Igby was excellent!

[esc_oblivion · 10/10 · 14 February 2003]

Because of the faulty review I read I feel I must submit another giving a better picture of the film then the other reviewer provided. All those things he said that weren't clear to him seemed very clear to me. Yes, Susan Sarandon's character did give birth to both of the boys; except that one was illegitimate by Jeff Goldblums character, and the other was her real son from her husband who was driven crazy by her meddling. Whereas the other reviewer felt that Igby was a mess of a movie and compared it to The Royal Tennenbaums (which I agree was an utter mess and thoroughly unenjoyable), I felt that Igby was a refreshing black comedy. Which is exactly what you get when you cross comedy and drama. It has a lot of heart, excellent and insightful direction, real wit and sharpness in it's approach to the material... I thoroughly enjoyed it. It came across as a cerebral experience for me. Highly recommended.

A great film.

[iswampsouljal · 7/10 · 12 August 2003]

Igby Goes Down was an excellent delving into the mind of teenage boys. Culkin does an excellent job of drawing a viewer in to find out just what it is that's making him tick. Why he does the things he does. It is also an excellent representation of what the rich do best. Parlor games and head trips. Gritty in all the right places, you find yourself feeling the characters at every turn of their life. A great show of how true love ( Sookie and Igby ), can be devoured by modern day social standards. A boy stuck at the line of eighteen, afraid of taking his journey alone, yet left to fend for himself by a poisonous brother, and a confused young woman.

A great scene in this movie is when his mother finally died, and Igby broke down. He did love his mother, and you could see this, despite all his talks of hatred. Even his witty comment about the eulogy was enough to put a sad smile on any viewers face.

Though I'd love to rain praise on this movie, it did lack in some story elements. I feel Russel may have been underportrayed, and DH, though an important role, sometimes fell behind the story. Until bam, there he is with his pants around the ankles. Amanda Peet was lovely, as always, and I do believe young Culkin did a wonderful job of portraying Igby. I think the movie could have gotten more into the reason Oliver felt so resentful of Igby, but all together I gave it a 7/10.

J-Go

A Crush on a Culkin??

[andreakthornberry · 10/10 · 5 December 2021]

This is one of my favorite movies. The character development is so rich I ended up with a crush on a Culkin. So I guess the movie is a touch disturbing and quirky as well.

Gritty coming-of-age movie makes the grade

[Donolog · 7/10 · 26 May 2003]

Overall I thought this was a good movie. It really wasn't much more than a gritty coming of age movie about a punk-ass teenager, but it did that very well, and not in a popcorn-teenage-movie kind of way. Kieran Culkin can act, and seems to be picking up where his older brother left off career-wise. Ryan Phillippe continues to disappoint me with yet another sterile performance -- it looks like we might have the next Christian Slater on our hands, but Phillippe's flaccid performance wasn't enough to drag the film down.

Bottom line: 7/10

Self obsessed antics of wealthy New Yorkers

[slake09 · 3/10 · 30 November 2008]

Igby is a slacker born to wealth and privilege who spends all his time avoiding any kind of change to the life he hates.

This is vaguely like a J.D. Salinger story, as if the screenwriter was trying to emulate his hero almost to the point of plagiarism. Mostly it's a story of people who are so self-centered they don't even notice they are better off than they deserve, spending all their time doing drugs and boning each other. Picture the residents of a stereotypical trailer park if they had lots of money. Sadly, people from a trailer park would probably be a lot more interesting and a lot more grateful for having so much leisure time.

Igby is about as interesting as any teenage dropout; if you've seen one, you've seen Igby.

A Great Look At Teenager Angst

[tabuno · 8/10 · 26 January 2019]

23 February 2003. With biting humor, a wry sense of the absurd and some great off-beat acting by some well-known actors, this movie presents an excellent look at a young man growing up in the rich and powerful society and indirectly looks at death and the surrealistic world that in some ways may parallel our own youth's obssession today with a new generational way of thinking and behaving. This involving and slanted/angled view to view, breaks ground in American cinema by introducing European avante garde, new wave nihilism, rejecting the customary beliefs in morality and religion. But at the same time, it reveals a deeper subset of emotions and meanings in life that are becoming even more relevant in our lifetime.

Too close for comfort

[crypticcrytic · 7/10 · 4 October 2002]

'Igby Goes Down' is loaded with characters without much to recommend them. Not that anyone needs to be perpetually perky, but the only sarcastic gesture missing from "Igby Goes Down" is the long-cadenced applause accompanied by the look of ennui. This is where the audience comes in.

Igby (Kieran Culkin) is about to make the leap from adolescence to the real world and since there's no evidence that he's ever even visited, there's no reason to expect a bright future. No, not another ‘coming of age' serio-comic teen angst ridden screenplay! At least there's worthwhile talent to entertain us along the way.

Igby has a cast of veterans we've enjoyed in other films. Susan Sarandon and Jeff Goldblum deserve each other though we see little of them on-screen together. Haven't we seen enough of Ms. Sarandon lately? She is more likely to die of overexposure than of anything scripted in "Moonlight Mile," "The Banger Sisters " or "Igby." Claire Danes plays `a vegetarian for purely moral reasons' who is partial to ice cream sundaes, though there's no evidence that she wears them. As a Bennington student taking a semester off, she has perfected an innocent/impatient air that is wonderful to watch.

Jeff Goldblum portrays a one-dimensional capitalist with such panache that he becomes a pitiable. And then there's Igby, a young man who hasn't met a prep school he didn't dislike. We all know that a traditional education isn't for everyone and there are alternatives to consider but Mimi (Sarandon) was so intent on sending Igby to an eastern prep school that she was willing to sacrifice all to complete her mission... or die trying.

Here are characters that deserved our disdain more than our sympathy, yet they are likeable. Igby is a spoiled conniver and pathological liar. His brother Oliver (Ryan Phillipe) is an aloof twit who lacks the decency to mentor a younger brother in need. Sarandon is a bitchy manipulator who has it her way then makes you feel bad about it. These characters are real; believable people like those we know, associate and (yikes) love. Rather than love or hate "Igby," perhaps we can identify with it. And that's kind of sad.

Rather pointless, I'd say

[Nog · 2/10 · 23 December 2012]

Igby is sort of like Holden Caulfield, but without a serious thought in his head. It's hard to either like or dislike the character, since we only have his cheeky one-liners to define it. The people around him are quite horrible in their own unique ways, so that kinda makes him look better, but they are basically one-dimensional manifestations of various narcissistic types. So, the setup is that Igby is your basic disaffected youth, presumably intelligent (although that is never really established), navigating amongst these jerks for most of the film. It didn't seem quite plausible that these women would be so anxious to sleep with him -- Culkin has this sort of baby-fat thing with his face, he's rather short, and he doesn't seem to do anything to warrant such instant passion. The film goes on and on, without a bit of dramatic tension, only a series of scenes that I suppose are meant to elucidate the incredible range of self-conscious egos striving for hipness in the Big Apple. There are scenes that should really draw the audience in for some emotional connection to Igby's difficulty with his parents, but once the one-liners flee the screen, so does any hope for believable drama. And there's one of the weakest endings I've seen in some time. What is most surprising is that Susan Sarandon and Bill Pullman read this script and decided they wanted to be part of this mess. Perhaps the only point is to draw attention to how many phonies there are in the world. Problem is, Holden already did that about 60 years ago.