Igby Goes Down Movie
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Storyline
TAGLINES
Insanity is relative
Igby Slocumb, a rebellious and sarcastic seventeen year-old boy, is at war with the oppressive world of his East Coast "old money" family. With a schizophrenic father, a self-absorbed, distant mother, and a shark-like young Republican big brother, Igby figures there must be a better life out there, and he sets out to find it. After happily flunking out of several Prep Schools, Igby escapes into the bohemian underworld of Manhattan. His darkly comic trip—shared by a deviant cast of characters, including his terminally bored, part-time lover Sookie, his Godfather's trophy mistress Rachel, and smack-dealing performance artists Russel—veers from bizarre to tragic in Igby's ultimately noble attempt to keep himself from "going down."
| Kieran Culkin | Jason 'Igby' Slocumb, Jr. |
| Claire Danes | Sookie Sapperstein |
| Jeff Goldblum | D.H. Banes |
| Jared Harris | Russel |
| Amanda Peet | Rachel |
| Ryan Phillippe | Oliver 'Ollie' Slocumb |
| Bill Pullman | Jason Slocumb |
| Susan Sarandon | Mimi Slocumb |
| Rory Culkin | 10-Year-Old Igby |
| Peter Anthony Tambakis | 13-Year-Old Oliver |
| Bill Irwin | Lt. Ernest Smith, Pershing Academy |
| Kathleen Gati | Ida |
| Gannon Forrester | Little Cadet |
| Celia Weston | Bunny |
| Elizabeth Jagger | Lisa Fiedler |
| Burr Steers |
7.10 out of 10 (12240 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Weird and Wonderful!
posted on 27 Jul 2009Kieran 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.
Igby goes to bottom of the barrel.
posted on 25 Jul 2009Its like watching wet paint get dry aka bloody boring!!! What's the meaning of this movie? its like watching big brother almost nothing important happens in this movie. How the producers got Jeff goldblum,Rayn phillipe, Claire danes,Amamda peet to be part of this movie is a mystery.The leading actor called James nicknamed igby (Kieran Culkin) are the biggest mistake in this movie. Every scene this inept little actor are in are doomed to be boring, unconvincing and full of bad acting.(almost the whole movie ) The women in the movie finds his charms completely beyond their control and he gets his way with them. His brother Oliver(phillipe) and his so called Godfather dad (goldblum) goes for 2nds It difficult to give a review about a movie without meaning but its got goal.To teach the young generation it good to take pills with booze, its cool to smoke weed, it cool to be without any goal in life, but look what it did to his older brother Mr. ex home alone star. From hero to zero If you like to be ripped off at a rental shop go and rent this movie, but you have been warned
Entertaining feature from 1st time director/writer Burt Steers
posted on 15 Jul 2009Famed novelist & blue blood Louis Auchincloss's nephew Burr Steers wisely chooses a world well known to him for his first directorial effort. That world being the rich & privileged enjoying their riches and privileges.
Holden Caufield-esque Igby Slocumb, Jr. (Kieran Culkin), angry young man, rebels against the phony, class conscious world he sees around him not realizing of course that his very place in society affords him the opportunity to rebel, credit card intact (metaphorically speaking). Meanwhile Igby's mother, Mimi Slocumb (Susan Sarandon) does all she can to control and manipulate family members in a last ditch effort to thwart and deny the ravages of cancer which are quickly killing her. Igby's father, Jason Slocumb (Bill Pullman) is verging on the brink of a complete mental breakdown while Igby's older brother Oliver (Ryan Phillippe) has developed a stoicism and a taste for scotch beyond his years. The film's genre is not commonplace and is a welcome break from the traditional fare offered to the movie going public. Steers handles his actors well and moves through through the screenplay (also written by Steers) competently and smoothly. Perhaps not a movie for the farm belt, but for anyone who's ever read Catcher In The Rye (and liked it), the movie is sure to please.
Nothing Special
posted on 13 Jul 2009I have heard from a lot of people that Igby Goes Down was a really good movie, so I decided to rent it to see what all the fuss is about, besides I think Kieran Culkin is great actor. Anyways, Igby Goes Down is about a young man named Igby(Kieran Culkin) who struggles with school, family and life. He can't stand being with his dying mother Mimi(Susan Sarandon) and his perfect older brother Oliver(Ryan Phillippe). Igby finally escapes and he goes to Manhattan to live with his Godfather's young sexy girlfriend Rachel(Amanda Peet)and also meanwhile he meets a older woman named Sookie(Claire Danes) and them two become friends and eventually lovers. But in all this, Igby is still not happy and he can't cope with the ugly and cold reality of growing up and not knowing what to do with the rest of his life. This movie wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be, I often found myself bored and wondering when the movie was finally going to end. There are some fine performances in this movie, especially by Kieran Culkin and Claire Danes. But still i found the story to be somewhat of a mess, it just kept on going on and on without actually telling anything. I especially thought the ending was disappointing, I was expecting a big dramatic ending(I was imagining that Igby would commit suicide)but it was nothing like that.The movie had some funny moments but I would definitely not see it again. Anyways, I would give Igby Goes Down 6/10.
CATCHER IN THE RYE (JUST)
posted on 07 Jul 2009The trailer and director's mumblings very much pointed us towards "Catcher In The Rye". There are similarities, but not to a great extent.What we do have is a witty New York comedy, and if you can get past everyone fancying Culkin it's a good film. Goldblum especially steals all his scenes.
Too Cynical, Not as Stylish or Clever as it Wishes
posted on 07 Jul 2009What was this movie made for? As a coming of age story, it's unoriginal. As a drama about dysfunctional families, it's hardly believable. Its only strong points are its unusual, half-amusing characters, and decent visual style.I assume we are not supposed to take the characters seriously as real people. They typically had one motivation each, and if their actions didn't fit that motivation, they made no sense. And there was nearly no attempt to make the characters sympathetic to us. Some awful things happen to them, but they're awful people who bring their fates (except the illnesses of Igby's parents) on themselves.Igby himself is despicable, and his cock-sure attitude brings him down, just where the audience wants him. The only sympathetic, believable moment he has is in bed with his mother near the end. He seems to have escaped the movie's, and its characters', inhuman level of cynicism. Of course, in the next scene, he's on the phone with relatives as his old cartoon of a person.After the unreality of these characters, the movie's style is all that remains. Admittedly, the characters are all created and portrayed to the amusement of the audience. They trade clever, acerbic, and sometimes actually funny, lines with each other. Costuming and interior design fit the stylish caricatures-of-people that inhabit them nicely. The bittersweet soundtrack tries to make us more sympathetic to the characters' hardships, but doesn't really succeed. There is also some symbolism here and there; compare Igby's mother's illness and her relationship with her children.This movie's story and style seem informed by, but much less cohesive than, Wes Anderson's Rushmore, and possibly Royal Tanenbaums. Ang Lee's Ice Storm is a darker and more stylish, but nearly as unrealistic, film about wealthy dysfunctional families. For a genuinely enjoyable, subversive, and more realistic coming-of-age story, read JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, from which Igby's character and story are largely borrowed.
inspired but uninspiring
posted on 03 Jul 2009***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** this movie meanders around just like the protagonist, and is every bit as aimless. it also blatantly borrows from "Catcher in the Rye." it is a movie about a spoiled and defiant, freeloading rich kid with no direction who lives, like a parasite, off of his wealthy adulterous godfather after getting expelled from several schools. it is downright depressing and the stupid kid is given every opportunity and he merely screws it all up for himself. he is not likeable, and i only found myself getting frustrated with the conundrums and obstacles that he created by being a stubborn little brat. and what's worse? he finds no resolve in the end-AND he and his brother kill their dying mother (at her request). the dialogue that was supposed to be clever and quoteable comes off as unconvincing and contrived. people don't converse the way in which they do in this movie. see it if you like movies about spoiled brats, like "Dutch." just don't expect anything spectacular. it is mostly frivolous and misguided, like its title character.
Rich and moving (***1/2)
posted on 29 Jun 2009Jason "Igby" Slocumb (Kieran Culkin) is a teenager who has grown up in a very rich but incredibly bizarre and dysfunctional family. His mother (Susan Sarandon) is cold and brittle, his older brother (Ryan Phillipe) is a preppie, Young-Republican snake, and his father (Bill Pullman) literally went crazy when Igby was young and now resides in a mental hospital. As a result, Igby has grown into a detached, sarcastic young man with an attitude reminiscent of Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher In The Rye".He has been expelled from numerous schools and soon after the movie begins he has escaped from military school and is hiding out in New York City in a loft that belongs to his godfather, D.H. (Jeff Goldblum). Here he meets a lot of interesting people played by good actors (Claire Danes, Amanda Peet, Jared Harris...) and, in the grand tradition of coming-of-age movies, learns a lot about life and love.The movie has a real edge; it's tough, sarcastic and darkly funny, not your typical toothless coming-of-age movie. All the characters (except perhaps for Sarandon's, who could have used some further development to explain her bizarre behavior) are interesting and intriguing.The performances are all gravy too, particularly by Culkin and Danes, whose brief romantic interlude is genuinely touching.
Not really worth the effort
posted on 11 Jun 2009This is an attempt to put on film the type of work that in literature is the output of what comes under the umbrella of the East Coast intelligentsia mafia. Those authors seem to think that the story of a loser is good fun.
They believe that pseudo-clever dialog, an amoral approach to decision-making and a lot of pointless activity culminating in somebody's life falling apart add up to a meaningful commentary on a world that to them is both intimidating and despicable. Igby does not want to accomplish anything in life except to stay stoned and get laid apparently because his mother didn't love him enough and his father had a nervous breakdown. The entire film is made up of scenes in which Igby screws up and is told off.
Personally, I like a story in which somebody actually accomplishes something.
If heaven is such a wonderful place then why is getting crucified such a big deal?
posted on 14 May 2009After seeing The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys I had to run out and see this movie. After I viewed it I gave it a standing ovation of capturing the true angst of my generation. Igby is the realistic depiction of the average teenager. Kieran Caulkin was the perfect Igby. He could show you anguish wihout saying a word. The director of course is a genius already, but I was blown away by this movie. Finally a solid view of teen angst. The entire cast was incredible, the story was flawless. IGBY IS UP in my BOOK!!!!
The worst bits of Wierd Science meet the worst bits of Woody Allen for a joint (naughty!)
posted on 06 May 2009'Ferris Bueller's year off' we are tag-told, warning us how long it's going to feel like watching the bitter end (I didn't make it). It's a coming of age flick so, Mr Steers (surely a weak nom d'auteur, Mr Burst Ears?), you need to one one of two things. (a) give it a diamond hard cutting edge so that teenagers (looking for an alternative to the gross-out of Rules of Engagement) get their imagination fired or (b) create a really gripping screenplay fizzing with incidental zeitgeist. From the somewhat jaded tone of this comment one might have already guessed we got neither. For a short while it crossed my mind that the plot may have been loosely based around Hamlet - hope springs eternal... I think I was just hypothesising in order to try and find some oblique narrative armature to help me find some purpose in it. A saving grace might well be Jeff Goldbum's complicated modern capitalist 'baddie'. Despite the beautiful people, some OK acting and New York though, all gets suffocated 'neath a blanket self-indulgence. 4/10 - see it with someone you want to snog throughout.
Awful - characters had no depth
posted on 28 Apr 2009This film is a waste of 2 hours - I had no affinity with the characters and spent the whole movie waiting for something interesting to happen - instead it plodded along from one bad thing happening to Igby to another - and the final breakdown with the mother was ridiculous.
Ice Cold
posted on 23 Mar 2009I went into the theatre expecting to be either entertained or challenged in my thinking. Nothing happened. I take it that this was a comedy, a black comedy. But even in black comedies, people laugh. No one laughed. People with full buckets of popcorn were getting up in the middle of the movie and leaving. It had occurred to me to do the same, something I have never done.
I found nothing insightful or even artistic about this, unless you think that walking out of a theatre feeling chilled to the bone by a set of characters you wanted to have some feelings for, but you can find no reason to feel for them -- if this is artistic, then art sucks. This was not art.
It was a self-indulgent wallowing in pity for shallow, spoiled people who deserved no pity.If you waste your money on this movie, as I did, don't say you weren't warned. Again, I had high expectations of this film. God, I hate film reviewers who think anything ice cold must certainly be art. P.S.: There was only one good performance in the entire movie, laden with great performers -- that of Kieran Culkin. So what were Susan Sarandon, Ryan Phillipe, Claire Danes and Jeff Goldblum thinking when they got into this?
extremely dark
posted on 21 Mar 2009In a year full of fluff films this one has substance. It is very dark and has more than a trace of Catcher in the Rye in it. The film is definitely made by the actors in it. Complex relationships between characters and their backgrounds give the viewer a lot to analyze after the fact.8/10
A not so shocking but very boring attempt at comedy...
posted on 15 Mar 2009Why was this movie made? Haven't we seen enough movies and shows about how empty and jaded the rich are? Well, usually the characters have had some reason to be anything but empty and still have some kind of capability of human emotion left. You can't identify with one character in this inane movie. A lot of rich kids use drugs and rebel against their families but this movie is just fake. I see why it didn't get a wider release. Some independent movies are brilliant(is this even independent?) and some are okay but still have a few original ideas and some material that pushes the limits. This movie sucks. The only good part of the movie is Amanda Peet.
She is hot and I don't care that she sucked in this movie she at least took her shirt off. Hooray!
Excellent performances
posted on 25 Feb 2009Between this film and "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys", Kieran Culkin has come into his own, instead of just being known as "that Home Alone kid's little brother". Claire Danes also gives perhaps the best performance of her movie life here. The scene between Culkin and Danes that takes place on both sides of a door late in the film is poignant and powerful, and Jeff Goldblum seems as if he was made to play the part of DH. Susan Sarandon is wonderful, and I'm normally not a fan of Amanda Peet, Ryan Phillipe, or Bill Pullman, but each of them delivered in a surprising way. In this film, sometimes facial expressions do just as much as a line can, which is excellently shown in a scene with no dialogue between Goldblum and Peet in a restaurant.The story of the film isn't what I took to be the main focus of the movie, so much as the characters and their interactions between each other. While I found myself getting involved in the plot, I found myself even more anticipating how the characters acted toward each other.Some people appear not to have liked this movie because they thought it was a comedy going into it. Don't be fooled, it isn't. The subject matter is often heavy and dramatic. But the dialogue is so laden with great clever lines and witty retorts (mostly by Igby), that one can't help laughing at the frankness of the main character, as well as some of the situations he gets himself into. If you're looking for an epic tale into the human psyche, or a side-splitting comedy, you're not going to find it. But if you want a compelling and powerful story with some Oscar-quality acting performances, check this one out.
Don't let Igby take you down with it
posted on 19 Feb 2009Many a respected film critic failed to see right through these shallow characters (caricatures?) and empty, self-conscious performances, faultily assuming the universe of Igby Slocumb Jr. is somehow to be taken seriously. To think that some actually thought this film had "heart" is seeing in to this film a sincerity that just isn't there. It's as ridiculous an assertion as saying The Royal Tenenbaums are an affectionate group of family members, likewise. Both families play over-the-top to such a degree, comments like "touching scenes" seem as ludicrous and out-of-place as could possibly be described.Why so many film critics were duped into believing these characters is quite beyond my comprehension. Yet they took their soft hands to their keyboards and went to stroking this film's ego superfluously. All this curious praise is highly unwarranted. They fawn, they wax lyrical, saliva drips from their pens, and their analytical written performances come off sounding just as trumped up and phoney as the behaviours we are exposed to in this odd, sitcom-ish world of the Slocumb's'.This film tries its darned best to be smart but comes off sounding instead, "cutely cynical." Think of Darlene from the sitcom, "Roseanne," and you'll know what kind of brain and mouth we're dealing with when speaking of Igby. Smart, or just a smart alec? Witty, or just sarcastic? I did not think the character of Igby to be all that intelligent whatsoever. Obnoxious - cutting - mocking, yes, but knowledgeable?, wise?, mature?, heck - well read? Going in to this film I was anticipating genuine, snappy wit from this kid (indeed, all the reviews hyped up this one aspect of his personality), yet what came of his remarks and observations were nothing of the sort. One, maybe two great lines, I admit, but therein lies my point. I didn't believe for one second that this smart-ass, dopey-looking adolescent would ever think to spew the occasional insights that he does, as if he's somehow so much more experienced and cultured than all the people he hangs out with, who are about twice his age. It felt more to me like Kieran Culkin delivering well-rehearsed lines than Igby Slocumb spewing self-originated repartee. (Want real heartless, snap-quick wit? Try "Roger Dodger," and get your time's and money's worth.) Culkin's performance felt very constrained, as if he was continually conscious of the fact of the image he always had to hold up to the camera. I was irritated in some scenes by his mere presence, (or maybe I was simply fixating too much on the bad haircut?)Not to pick solely on Culkin. There's also Sarandon, who hams it up and flaunts her on-screen star-power as if to say, "Look at me playing the part of Mimi Slocumb!" The fact that later on in the film she wants to be taken as a real human being, there lying on her deathbed, is a joke, an insult, and some unintended humour we receive in recognizing the absurdity of this.Oh yes, we also get Amanda Peet playing an uptight snob who both walks and dresses "just-so," a woman who's sexy in her mirror only. Claire Danes provides the weakest slice of acting of the film in laughing in all the wrong places only in a later scene to then pretend to cry, asking of her audience to take a leap of faith with her and believe in her tears. And to think that Igby - he with no cash, career, success, future, looks, and personality - lands these two broads in the sack so easily and quickly as he does, had me rolling my eyes. And behind me sat the audience believing it all, shocking me with so much charitable gullibility.A film ought to have at least one character to either cheer on or sympathize with. I detested all these characters' masks and egos. There is not one believable and likeable personality among this bunch, other than those of Pullman's and Goldblum's, by far the two most interesting people of the film, only to be used as little as they are. These two men both appeared to possess genuine emotion and substance, (consider when Goldblum's Baines lets loose his pent-up frustration on Igby, we appreciate, if not applaud this honest reaction from him). D.H. Baines and Jason Slocumb almost seem as if they should be characters in a whole other movie, one with soul, focus, and meaning.I musn't forget Ryan Phillippe's Oliver, who's about as enthusiastic and interesting as listening to Duchovny's Agent Mulder ramble off dry thoughts in flat monotones through a bored set of ventriloquist's lips.This film just isn't sure what mood it wants to express. It plays like a sitcom at the outset and by the end it expects of us to feel something profound for the characters. It's stuffed to the hilt with sarcasm yet then wants to be taken seriously when mother Mimi Slocumb dies. The scene of Igby pounding the bed out of grief for his mother's loss seemed so out of character that, once again, my eyes began to goggle.The scene which also has Igby visiting his father in the mental hospital is foreseen way in advance, inserted only as a gimmick, a cue for all those in the audience who fell for this synthetic family to begin getting gratuitous lumps in their throats.
This movie is really not that bad
posted on 05 Feb 2009Sure, it is the boo hoo of the upper class, which could turn some people off. I took this movie as it was, about a sad distrusting child growing up in one messed up family. I really enjoyed the progression, although I would disagree with the removing of some of the deleted scenes. Kieran is such a great actor, I mean who knew. I love Ryan, but this movie did not go out of his range,which is ok, he can play such a great rich and cold young man.
Jeff and Susan were great as always, and of course Bill always seems to amaze me in every movie he is in. Claire....Ahh she is so refreshing and beautiful, I could have only wished more for her and Kieran's characters. The darkness of this reminds me of Heathers. I completely got the comedy and the drama of this movie, I wish I could have only seen it in the theater.
Simple yet engaging and not dragged out makes this movie well worth buying or renting.
This is not Catcher In the Rye
posted on 03 Feb 2009It is conspicuous to anyone with a perspicacious sense of literary, or artistic vision that this film is simply a failed attempt to assume the position of a 21st century take on the Salinger work Catcher in the Rye. The thematic strands centered around the demoralizing pressures of socialite, aristocratic, New York juvenescence encapsulated by the rugged veneer of a stereotyped Bohemian paradigm has lent itself once already in the form of Holden Caufield to endless over-interpretation and introspection, used as a vehicle to assert one's presuppositions and arrogant ideologies about the human condition and the circumstances of upper-echelon life, so there is no longer a reason to recycle this unbecoming genre of film. Granted, the dialogue is respectable, sardonic argot amongst precocious youth always seems to be the hallmark of a "good" contemporary film especially when delivered with the aplomb of apposite actors, but I think that even in it's witticism this film goes too far. It is time for us authors, auteurs, and artists to realize that the Bohemian movement is no longer the seminal construction that it once was. It has been commodified and integrated into the stereotype of a generation of intelligent students and young people. We are cultivated into believing that the greater the esoteric lexicon and recondite allusions we employ the more appropriate our film is of condign reverence. I say this is no longer the case. Give me art that pushes the envelope rather than attempts to reinvent it. The wheel is done ladies and gentlemen, it's been perfected. It is now time to focus our efforts on application. So artists out there I propose the following challenge, we the dissident, abstruse coterie of artists need to generate material that moves things forward giving those subsequent to us something to have remonstrative endeavors towards, further actualizing the Barthes notions of the textual flux.
Great film with a very sharp script
posted on 16 Aug 2009This is a very funny, sharp and witty film that's a joy to watch. I saw it twice in a week, owing to scheduling on my satellite package, and enjoyed it even more the second time.The script is unashamed about the sheer awfulness of adolescence and reminded me of how clever, smart and in control I too THOUGHT I was at Igby's age. The central performance by Kieren Culkin is a gem and when he's 40, he'll look back and wonder how he could have been this good, this young.The other performances are also sterling, including Susan Sarandon, playing a mother with claws, Ryan Phillippe as a near-psychotic WASP, Jeff Goldblum as a steely, oversuccessful godfather and a touching performance by Amanda Peet.I suppose for those with chips on their shoulders, the mega-rich New York glitterati setting might be offputting, but I didn't find it so.As an added bonus, the music soundtrack is great.