Igby Goes Down 2002

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Blisteringly rude, scarily funny, sorrowfully sympathetic to the damage it surveys, the film has in Kieran Culkin a pitch-perfect Holden. Read more

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: The kid is a bit of a twit. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Surprises you with a reservoir of emotion and sentiment that happily counters the film's trendy ironic veneer. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: An original and biting piece of work. Read more

Robert K. Elder, Chicago Tribune: A kinetic drama that seems to wander aimlessly, beautifully until it crashes in an odd anti-climax befitting reality itself. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: Although Igby has its share of glitches and tonal inconsistencies, it packs an emotional wallop similar to that of another cultural golden oldie as beloved in its way as The Catcher in the Rye: The Graduate. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Like its hero, the film seems unformed and rambling, more like a rough draft than a finished product. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Igby is ... so irritating that people periodically feel impelled to lash out and hit him out of sheer frustration at the smugness of his baby rebellion. Audiences will likely be tempted to throw a few punches themselves. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: A deliciously cold, brutal and unsentimental gem about growing up in an environment that knows no mercy. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: Steers, in his feature film debut, has created a brilliant motion picture. Read more

Steven Rosen, Denver Post: This 'dark comedy' has an amazing amount of heart to go with its darkness. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Poisonously funny and unstintingly furious gem. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Good actors have a radar for juicy roles -- there's a plethora of characters in this picture, and not one of them is flat. Read more

Jane Sumner, Dallas Morning News: The sly, visceral and daring comedy with its startling opening and strong, magnetic cast has a lot going for it. Read more

John Patterson, L.A. Weekly: Culkin, a revelation here, mines every last nuance of the confusion and anger that results. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: You get the impression that writer and director Burr Steers knows the territory ... but his sense of humor has yet to lose the smug self-satisfaction usually associated with the better private schools. Read more

David Edelstein, NPR's Fresh Air: Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: It's been a long time since the screen has produced a more charmingly muddled or more consistently interesting kid than 17-year-old Jason (Igby) Slocumb. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: The kind of film in which everyone's point of view is respected ... and yet everyone, including Igby, remains something of a mystery. Nobody wins, and nobody loses. This is one grown-up movie. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: I have always appreciated a smartly written motion picture, and, whatever flaws Igby Goes Down may possess, it is undeniably that. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Because the genre is well established, what makes the movie fresh is smart writing, skewed characters, and the title performance by Kieran Culkin. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Far too taken with its own rumpled-chino stylishness to be genuinely affecting. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Mean-spirited and not remotely clever, though it strives for archness at every turn. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Daphne Gordon, Toronto Star: Holden Caulfield did it better. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Read more

Ken Eisner, Variety: Read more

Ed Park, Village Voice: Culkin broods and freaks out ably, but Igby's snotty, dysfunction-derived malaise remains off-putting, mostly because his lines aren't half as clever or empathic as Steers would believe. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: Although I hate Igby -- he's snotty, rich, emotionally brutal, cynical, treacherous, vindictive, manipulative -- I also love him. You can, truly, feel his pain. Read more