Igby Goes Down

Pros: Culkin, Peet, Sarandon, General characterization
Cons: Basic "coming of age" premise is worn, but that's forgivable

I’m tired of “coming of age” films. I’m not a teenager and their angst simply wears thin after a while. This officially makes me a grumpy old person. But once in a while, a true “coming of age” story comes along that is so ...

Pros: Frequently hilarious, Kieran Culkin, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Susan Sarandon, etc.
Cons: The humor is aiming to a fairly specific audience and some people might not laugh.

Much as reviewers tackling The Majestic last winter seemed to be contractually obligated to mention Frank Capra in their reviews, it's difficult to find a critic who's willing to discuss Burr Steers's first feature Igby Goes Down without...

Pros: often funny, nice performances, engaging story, very wry
Cons: insincere at some points, visually poor

Burr “Flock of Seagulls” Steers’ Igby Goes Down is a quirky, ambitious and corybantic little thing to behold, retooling the Wes Anderson structure past the summits of inventive wit and into inventive cynicism. While kind of...

Pros: Culkin, Sarandon, Phillipe, the screenplay, the humor
Cons: superficial treatemt of serious issues

If the Royal Tenenbaums was a little too “happy “and sappy for you, this is the replacement. There are similarities between these two films, but they are by no means identical. In fact the only thing they have in common is t they both...

Pros: A big and ballsy cast
Cons: Too much disaffection

You know that scene in "Dumb and Dumber", where Lloyd offers to give Harry a sonic example of the Most Annoying Sound in the World? Well, "Igby Goes Down" begins with that sound, metronomically played over a blank screen. Only this time, when the...

Pros: Generally pleasant story, Kieran Culkin puts on a great performance
Cons: Lags at points, depressingly depressing

Over the course of the last few months, I've revealed little bits of my life in my reviews. While I'm not going to go too off topic here, I had an experience a while back where I realized my life was veering wildly off track. Upset at my parents and...

Pros: funny, sometimes touching, great cast, excellent dialog
Cons: a couple of flat scenes, Clare Danes...

While this movie is far from perfect, it's hard to say that this isn't one of the best movies I've seen so far this year... The cast is excellent, the dialog superb, and yes, while much of the material is re-hashed elsewhere, originality aside, this is a...

Pros: solid ensemble of indie and pro actors, some laughable moments, coming-of-age on the lam
Cons: prototypical characters, overwhelming indifference to the story

Burr Steers' Igby Goes Down is a coming-of-age story in which Igby Slocumb desperately seeks emergence from the warped and (internal) self-destructive mold of his "old money"-minded family. The credits roll with the conclusion. Igby (Kieran...

Pros: Culkin, Sarandon, Peet, Goldblum, great screenplay, striking resemblance to The Catcher In The Rye.
Cons: Phillipe

Meet Igby Slocumb Junior: a rebellious 17-year old boy in the midst of war against his “old money” New England family. Wandering not quite aimlessly on a lam through Manhattan, Igby spends all his time desperately seeking something better,...

Pros: Cast, script, humor, Jeff Glodblum.
Cons: Humor too dark for some, bad editing.

Note: For any of you wondering why this review is so short and undetailed, it happens to be one of my very first reviews that I had never posted, and recently came across. Don't think I've lost my touch or anything. ;) Igby Goes Down is ...

Pros: Strong cast, good soundtrack, occasionally funny
Cons: The 2002 film year's most irritating characters

Let me start off by saying that teenage coming-of-age sagas are among my favorite of genres. The 1967 classic The Graduate would undoubtedly make my all-time top ten, and Paul Brickman’s criminally underrated Risky Business is, in my...

Pros: Funny, touching, extremely literate, great portrayal of NYC and DC, excellent performances
Cons: Lots of subject matter that will upset lots of people

Vaguely like American Beauty in its impulse to be both darkly funny and terribly serious, Igby Goes Down is the story of a boy (his age is never made clear, I'd guess 16) who, after getting kicked out of every school on the Eastern Seaboard, and running...

Pros: Very large & diverse cast, coming of age story
Cons: played out storyline, pretentious characters with overexaggerated personalities

Wow. I don't even know where to begin with this movie. Let me just say that I picked it up because I read the back cover and it sounded like my favorite kind of film - the coming of age story. Since "Catcher in the Rye" is my favorite book and "Igby"...

Pros: dialogue, cast and performances, the ghost of Holden Caufield
Cons: Ryan Phillipe (maybe), the ghost of Holden Caufield (maybe)

Pros:
The dialogue in this movie is very good but not overly snappy or mannered. I can't praise it enough, nearly as good as some of the Cohen brothers stuff, all without seeming like the writers/directors are too proud of it.

The cast,...

Pros: Great cast! Great plot. Slightly demented.
Cons: Nothing (I can think of).

I hadn’t even heard of this film when I was at my local movie rental shop. I was casually browsing through the movies when their TV’s starting blaring about a new release that I had never heard of, Igby Goes Down. The preview talked of...