IGBY GOES DOWN

Year: 2002
USA: Metro Goldwyn Mayer /United Artists
UK: Optimum Releasing
Cast: Kieran Culkin, Susan Sarandon, Jeff Goldblum, Claire Danes, Ryan Phillippe, Bill Pullman, Amanda Peet, Jared Harris Rory Culkin, Kathleen Gati, Cassidy Ladden, Dean Nolen, David Arrow, Gannon Forrester, Erin Fritch, Amber Gross
Director: Burr Steers
Country: USA
USA: 97 mins
UK: 98 mins
USA Rated: R for language, sexuality and drug content
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language, sex, and drug references
USA Release Date: 13 September 2002 (Limited Release - Los Angeles and New York
UK Release Date: 13 June 2003


Synopsis

Igby Slocumb (Kieran Culkin), a rebellious and sarcastic seventeen-year-old boy, is at war with the stifling world of 'old money' privilege he was born in to. With a schizophrenic father (Bill Pullman), a self-absorbed, distant mother (Susan Sarandon), and a shark-like young republican big brother (Ryan Phillippe), Igby figures there must be a better life out there - and sets about finding it.

Happily flunking out of yet another prep school, Igby is sent off to a military academy in the dreaded Midwest. With the aid of his mother's pilfered credit card, he goes on the lam. His darkly comedic voyage eventually lands him in New York, where he hides out at his godfather's (Jeff Goldblum) weekend pied-a-terre. There he encounters a deviant cast of characters, including his godfather's trophy choreographer girlfriend (Amanda Peet) and the terminally bored Sookie Sapperstein (Claire Danes). In his quest to free himself from the oppressive dysfunction of his family, Igby's struggles veer from the comic to the tragic in an ultimately noble attempt to keep himself from 'going down'.