Skip to content
Dom Robinson reviews
Igby Goes Down 
MGM
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 24394 DVD
- Running time: 94 minutes
- Year: 2002
- Pressing: 2003
- Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 32 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English, Czech
- Subtitles: 9 languages available
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- RRP: £19.99
- Extras: Featurette: “In Search of Igby”, Deleted Scenes with commentary, Trailer, Audio, Photo Gallery, Commentary
Director:
- Burr Steers
(Igby Goes Down)
Producer:
- Lisa Tornell and Marco Weber
Screenplay:
- Burr Steers
Music:
- Uwe Fahrenkrog Peterson
Cast:
- Jason “Igby” Slocumb Jr: Kieran Culkin
Sookie Sapperstein: Claire Danes
D.H. Baines: Jeff Goldblum
Russel: Jared Harris
Rachel: Amanda Peet
Oliver “Ollie” Slocumb: Ryan Phillippe
Jason Slocumb: Bill Pullman
Mimi Slocumb: Susan Sarandon
10-year-old Igby: Rory Culkin
Bunny: Celia Weston
Mr Nice Guy: Eric Bogosian
Mrs Piggee: Cynthia Nixon
First school headmaster: Gore Vidal
Igby Goes Down was a critically-acclaimed film that I had heard about last year. It seemed to have a decent cast, although I never much cared for Amanda Peet as I don’t think she’s even half as attractive as some would seem to give her credit for, and it’s somewhat interesting to see what the next move is for any of the Culkin clan since they clearly want to keep as far away from the Home Alone series of which Macaulay the elder starred in the first two. So, with the addition of an independent movie-style to it, I looked forward to this film.
Jason Slocumb Jr (Kieran Culkin), aka Igby – a derogatory nickname he gave himself for when he got things wrong as a child, is a troubled teenager. He’s naerly 18, he’s been chucked out of several schools and his mother has finally had enough, sending him to military school for starters. With flashbacks to the age of 10, where Culkin’s younger brother Rory portrays him at that age, we see his father (Bill Pullman) cracking up from the stress of modern life in general, his mother (Susan Sarandon) popping pills like there’s no tomorrow and he has an elder brother, Ollie (Ryan Phillippe) who seems to have got the better end of the deal out of the pair.
Characters and potential love-interests sway in front of the camera, such as waitress Sookie Sapperstein (an at-first-unrecognisable Claire Danes), Igby’s godfather D.H. Baines (Jeff Goldblum), gay artist Russel (Jared Harris) and wannabe artist Rachel (Amanda Peet), but there’s no real sense of direction and as they all wind their way from beginning to end and things happen to each of them, you really don’t feel inclined to care about any of them.
Igby Goes Down is an unconventional movie with lots of dialogue on hand so it’s not one to watch if you’re easily distracted or intend to only half-pay attention. Overall, though, it simply points out that everyone’s got failings and that’s about it. If it wasn’t for the occasionally decent music from The Dandy Warhols and Coldplay’s “Don’t Panic” punctuating points along the way I would’ve long since switched it off. I do try and stick with films until the end, though, as there’s always a chance a pay-off will occur and the last 90+ minutes will have been worth the effort, but this does nothing different to the genre regarding dysfunctional families.
Filmed and presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, I didn’t expect such a drama to be shot with such a wide ratio since it’ll find most of its audience on the home video/cult TV circuit where original ratios are rarely respected. Still, here on DVD it’s kept correct and the print has no problems whatsoever. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is purely functional for this type of film.
Well, if I didn’t find the film particularly entertaining then the extras won’t do much for me either:
- Featurette: “In Search of Igby” (16 mins): Standard chat from the cast and crew, in 16:9 letterbox with 2.35:1 letterbox film clips.
- Deleted Scenes with optional commentary (10 mins): 9 scenes, with or without the director telling you more, all in letterbox 2.35:1.
- Trailer (2 mins): In anamorphic 2.35:1.
- Photo Gallery: 45 pics
- Audio commentary: with director Burr Steers and actor Kieran Culkin.
32 chapters, 9 subtitle options: English for the hard of hearing, Croatian, Dutch, Greek, Hebrew, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovenian and Turkish, and a main menu with looped music and animation based on clips from the film, but it’s not a film I want to see again.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.