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.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
