Synopsis
Igby Slocumb, a rebellious and sarcastic 17-year-old boy, is at war with the stifling world of old money privilege he was born into. 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 sets about finding it.
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Cast
- Kieran CulkinIgby
- Claire DanesSookie
- Jeff GoldblumD.H.
- Jared HarrisRussel
- Amanda PeetRachel
- Ryan PhillippeOliver
- Bill PullmanJason
- Susan SarandonMimi
- Rory Culkin10-Year-Old Igby
- Peter Anthony Tambakis13-Year-Old Oliver
Recommendations
- 100
Entertainment Weekly
Gets weirder and meaner and darker and sadder as it progresses, which is amazing since it simultaneously remains funny and horrifying right up to the end. - 90
L.A. Weekly
Culkin, a revelation here, mines every last nuance of the confusion and anger that results. Bursting with grenadelike one-liners and full-bodied performances, particularly from Sarandon (batty) and Goldblum (creepy) -- Igby Goes Down inaugurates a career that should be well worth following closely. - 88
Philadelphia Inquirer
Smart and novelistic and spiked with more than a bit of The Catcher in the Rye, Steers' movie is a prickly coming-of-age tale in which everybody -- but especially Culkin -- shines. - 88
Baltimore Sun
This is a marvelous film, a look at the strange, exasperatingly labyrinthine process of adolescence and the diverse ways people find to deal with it. - 88
New York Daily News
The movie is an actors' paradise, and absolutely no one disappoints. - 83
Portland Oregonian
You'll gasp appalled and laugh outraged and possibly, watching the spectacle of a promising young lad treading desperately in a nasty sea, shed an errant tear. - 80
The New York Times
Although Igby has its share of glitches and tonal inconsistencies, it packs an emotional wallop similar to that of another cultural golden oldie as beloved in its way as "The Catcher in the Rye": "The Graduate." - 70
Chicago Reader
Misses a chance to use the Manhattan setting to add to his protagonist's displacement, instead treating the city as a bland backdrop.
