Igby Goes Down: Critic Reviews

Wickedly funny, jarringly transgressive, obdurately unpigeonholeable and startlingly moving.

Although I hate Igby -- he's snotty, rich, emotionally brutal, cynical, treacherous, vindictive, manipulative -- I also love him. You can, truly, feel his pain.

A deliciously cold, brutal and unsentimental gem about growing up in an environment that knows no mercy.

The film makes a fatal mistake: It asks us to care about a young man whose only apparent virtue is that he is not quite as unpleasant as some of the people in his life.

Holden Caulfield did it better.

Good actors have a radar for juicy roles -- there's a plethora of characters in this picture, and not one of them is flat.

Dark, depressing story that's for adults only.

Consistently unusual, unpredictable and uproarious viewing.

Deep, dark and hopelessly cynical - the kind of film that kids are too young for and won't understand and parents are too old for and won't understand either.

While teens are at the age of self discovery, Igby is doing his best work at self-destruction.

While J.D. Salinger and his Holden Caulfield positively own the territory of runaway upper class malcontents in New York, this funny and touching film does justice to the genre.

The nearest thing we've got to a big-screen Catcher in the Rye...with Kieran Culkin giving a very Holden Caufield-esque performance.

An uninspiring, would-be Catcher in the Rye story.

It's second-class Salinger, but even at that it's thoughtfully entertaining.

There are some movies that hit you from the first scene and you know it's going to be a trip. Igby Goes Down is one of those movies.

A highly personal look at the effects of living a dysfunctionally privileged lifestyle, and by the end, we only wish we could have spent more time in its world.

The script is witty and touching, and the performances of the leads (and most of the supporting players) carry it off perfectly.

The handiest thing about casting a Culkin in your movie is that if he doesn't exactly fit, you can just exchange him for another, like a rented tuxedo or Baldwin.

Writer/director Burr Steers displays a pitch-perfect sense of the way Igby is at once repelled by his family and his upbringing and yet an unmistakable product of it.

"The Royal Tenenbaums" without the quirks.

is an experience far more tame and mainstream than it pretends to be. We start the movie amused by Igby's rough edges and quirks but are then asked to sympathize with his softer side. Its surprises, its honesty, and its shrewd humor get lost somewhere alo

In its own floundering way, it gets to you. Just like Igby.

I was just not moved by this satire/drama.

J.D. Salinger would've loved Igby.

Nearly overflowing with boldly eccentric people and lacerating dialogue, 'Igby' throws 'Catcher in the Rye,' 'The Royal Tenenbaums' and 'Less Than Zero' into the Cuisinart and blends them into a cocktail that packs a real kick.