Igby Goes Down

[amnesiac]

4.30pm 9.00pm Kino

Dir. Burr Steers

Had heard a lot of good reviews of this year's satirical upper-class dysfunctional family flick and was pleasnatly surprised to find that Igby lives up to the hype. Kieran Culkin, younger brother of the annoying runt form the Home Alone franchise turns in a remarkably mature performance as Igby; a modern day Holden Caulfield from the Upper East Side. The plot is fairly predictable but the characters, which on paper seem to be feather light stereotypes, are portrayed fantastically, due in no small part to the talents of the supporting cast (Susan Sarandon, Jeff Goldblum, Claire Danes, Ryan Phillipe). The film is dark, but fun and fans of Cruel Intentions will love it, even if it is a little more high-brow.

[KTS]

This is a great movie, full of deliciously dark humour. I thought the middle sagged a bit, meandering around aimlessly, but it's great. Nice to see Amanda Peet (who played the prostitue in "Identity") redeem herself here. All the cast are superb.

[damien]

The film is brilliant. Saw it last night. Proof again that theres people out there making films that don't need tits, ass and explosions to keep people happy.

Well written and well directed, the soundtrack was a bit obvious at times, but the main thing about this was the superb acting and characterisations. I was well impressed.

I'm not certain but is arthouse cinema becoming more mainstream again ? Its thanks to the likes of the Kino and the IFC that we see movies like this start to creep back into the likes of the Capital Cinema. Its a pity the Kino has only one screen.

Last night I saw a big queue for this movie and was smiling to see it. Theres some fine films too on the way soon to the Kino. Can't wait.

[odyssey_scot]

Igby goes down was pretty big in the states, in a way, it was always mainstream from the start, but it just appears that several new mainstream movies are being cleverly made (rather than being based on an assumption that we're all stupid).
I really did like Igby goes Down. Thought it was kinda reminiscent of Holdens breakdown in Catcher in the Rye...

[amnesiac]

Yeah the Catcher In The Rye theme is pretty hard to miss. Much better 21st century Holden than Jake Gyllenhaal in The Good Girl.

[KTS]

Definitely I agree, and at least they don't state the obvious as they did in the Good Girl - i.e., it wasn't enough to have people pick up the theme, they had to show Jake reading the book, talking to Jennifer Aniston about it, and identifying himself as "Holden".