Igby Goes Down
Metascore
72 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 30 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 30
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 30
  3. Negative: 3 out of 30
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  1. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    100
    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.
  2. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    100
    Igby Goes Down got a reaction from me: I think it's the movie of the year. I squirmed, I laughed a lot.
  3. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: John Patterson
    90
    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.
  4. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    90
    Wickedly funny, jarringly transgressive, obdurately unpigeonholeable and startlingly moving.
  5. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    90
    A dead-on sense of how rich kids live and talk today, a sense of the melancholy of a dysfunctional family, and some great dark laughs.
  6. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Kimberley Jones
    89
    Smart, uncanny, resistant to the short cuts of pop psychology, and shocking in the best since of the word, Steers' debut is a stunner.
  7. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    An inspired example of the story in which the adolescent hero discovers that the world sucks, people are phonies, and sex is a consolation. Because the genre is well established, what makes the movie fresh is smart writing, skewed characters, and the title performance by Kieran Culkin.
  8. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    88
    The movie is an actors' paradise, and absolutely no one disappoints.
  9. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    88
    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.
  10. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    88
    Across the board, the performances testify, often hilariously, to the pain these characters feel and inflict but are incapable of expressing.
  11. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    88
    This film and Salinger's novel differ greatly in the details of narrative and character. Yet, there's no mistaking the similarity in tone and sensibility and, particularly, in the capacity to split an audience into warring camps fighting on shared ground.
  12. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    88
    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.
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  13. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    83
    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.
    All this critic's reviews

User Reviews

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User Score
7.7 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 57 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 35 out of 45
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 45
  3. Negative: 7 out of 45
  1. DaveM.
    10
    Extraordinary cast and performances by all. Cinematography is great of the East Coast cities portrayed. A must see.
  2. Tss5078
    7
    I really love these weird independent comedies, that you have to be somewhat intelligent to understand. They are so much different from all the repetitive crap that we are subjected to over and over again. This is the story of a kid from a privileged family who just doesn't fit in. He sees the hypocrisy of it all and decides to run away to NYC, where he meets some unique characters that you'd only find in New York. The middle Culkin brother, Kieran, stars and was incredible. Simply put, sometimes the story is good, but the movie is made by its star, and Culkin gives one of the best performances I've seen in a film like this. Igby Goes Down has a ton of stars, it's a clever story, and you really connect to the characters. I really enjoyed this film, but be warned, it's not for everybody. I honestly believe when it comes to this type of film, you need a personality that relates to some aspect of the film. Without that connection, you might not get as much out of this film as others did.… Full Review »
  3. pinattar
    7
    If you enjoy movies like "Running with Scissors" or "Breakfast on Pluto", I think you will like this. It has a really similar structure, you follow a young boy with a dysfunctional life through a period of this life. And like those previous movies mentioned this really is more of a dramady then a striahgt comedy or drama, but alot lighter than the other movies. As for the acting, normally actors overplay sarcastic type characters but Kieran Culkin was great, he's sarcastic but not annoying. This was definitely his movie. And Ryan Phillippe was the perfect choice for the douchebag/elitist brother, he just naturally comes off as one because of this voice and speech pattern. As for the rest of the cast, they were all very good. The writing and direction was fine, although I didn't really like the ending and there they went with Amanda Peets' character. A fine movie worth watching, 7.5/10… Full Review »
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