Igby Goes Down
Cast
Kieran Culkin as Igby Slocumb
Claire Danes as Sookie
Jeff Goldblum as D.H. Banes
Amanda Peet as Rachel
Ryan Phillipe as Oliver Slocumb
Directed by Burr Steers
Rater #2 has description and review
Rater #1
Has not seen movie
Rater #2
3/10. Many critics have called Igby Goes Down around the same caliber as
The Royal Tenenbaums. Even fellow movie critic Steve Rhodes calls
it "The Royal Tenenbaums Lite". He disliked both films. I happen to
have The Royal Tenenbaums as one of my favorite films ever, yet Igby
Goes Down goes down as soon as we see the first scene.
Jason "Igby" Slocumb, Jr. (Kieran Culkin) is first seen with his
brother Oliver (Ryan Phillipe) killing their mother Mimi (Susan
Sarandon). Then, we have over 90 minutes of boredom and torture as we
see the life of Igby and those around. We don't really get to know
any of them. The character development makes Old School seem like it
had deep and thoughtful characters. About all we know about
characters are their relationships with others, and that's it. Even
with Igby, the main character, we don't know anything about, except
that he's a misfit. Why? There's no motives behind anything anyone
does, and things just "happen" without explanation. And that's not
the worst of it.
IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A COMEDY, BUT I DIDN'T LAUGH AT ALL! Even though
it's billed as a dramedy, it still needs laughs in it! Going back to
The Royal Tenenbaums, that was a dramedy also, but even in its
ensemble, we got to know and care about the characters, and I
LAUGHED! Burr Steers, director and writer, must have been thinking
that this was the easy way out. Manipulate the audience into thinking
that this is good, even though it has no laughs for a comedy and no
poignancy for a drama. A drama has to be touching, at least a little,
to be effective, but in Steers' script, it made me not feel for the
characters, so I couldn't feel anything at the climax.
Only Amanda Peet and Jeff Goldblum were able to work with this weak
movie. Here's a good analogy for this movie: if, during the
Inquisition, you were accused of being a heretic and were put on The
Rack, where all of your joints would come out of their sockets,
that's this movie. It's completely disjointed: we can't tell who's
sleeping with whom, who is whose parents, etc. I HAD NO IDEA WHAT WAS
GOING ON! Two things make this movie semi-worthwhile: Peet and
Goldblum's acting and Peet's nude scene (her second!). Other than
that, stay away like the plague, which is what you'll wish you'd
infected with as your watching this, so you can be put out of your
torture.
Rater #3
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #4
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #5
Has Not Seen Movies.
Rated R for language, sexuality, and drug content.
Running time: 97 minutes, about 93 minutes too long.
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