mikasparky Professional, capable actors, quality camera work, great lighting, superb scenery and sets....all that cannot rescue what is the cruddiest premise for a film I've ever seen. The plot is stupid. It's not believable. I can only surmise that the actors in this film either needed the money or owed someone a favor--they HAD to know that this was a dog of a script; I can't imagine this looking any better on the printed page than it does with the words issuing from the actors' mouth. The actors did the best they could--Sarandon is unlikable (her part calls for that), Goldblum is is suitably callous and cretinous, but the thing just doesn't work. There's no polite way to say it--this film stinks on ice. I would not advise anyone save my worst enemy to watch this hot mess. It's awful. I offer two stars in recognition of the technical work; the camera work, the lighting, the set decoration, even the wardrobes are quite good, and of course, the people who did the continuity work, etc., did a fine job. But the script? The script is the latticework upon which the film hangs, and the script was a pile of junk.

nemod12 Igby Goes Down was a bit of a surprise when i saw it on television last night. A while ago i said that on IMDb the ratings done by voters isn't what i am going to look for if i want to see a movie. I love this site for information but some people should be screened on intellect to give some reviews in my opinion.That said, this film isn't a feel good movie and i agree that it sometimes is hard to identify yourself in the characters.However the little story and the absolute phenomenal acting from the cast makes this to a film well worth watching. The guy who plays Igby does a very good job and the rest from the cast is also doing their part.It's absolutely no waste of time to watch. Just don't expect to have a good light laugh direct after the film. I give it a solid 8.

Nog Igby is sort of like Holden Caulfield, but without a serious thought in his head. It's hard to either like or dislike the character, since we only have his cheeky one-liners to define it. The people around him are quite horrible in their own unique ways, so that kinda makes him look better, but they are basically one-dimensional manifestations of various narcissistic types. So, the setup is that Igby is your basic disaffected youth, presumably intelligent (although that is never really established), navigating amongst these jerks for most of the film. It didn't seem quite plausible that these women would be so anxious to sleep with him -- Culkin has this sort of baby-fat thing with his face, he's rather short, and he doesn't seem to do anything to warrant such instant passion. The film goes on and on, without a bit of dramatic tension, only a series of scenes that I suppose are meant to elucidate the incredible range of self-conscious egos striving for hipness in the Big Apple. There are scenes that should really draw the audience in for some emotional connection to Igby's difficulty with his parents, but once the one-liners flee the screen, so does any hope for believable drama. And there's one of the weakest endings I've seen in some time. What is most surprising is that Susan Sarandon and Bill Pullman read this script and decided they wanted to be part of this mess. Perhaps the only point is to draw attention to how many phonies there are in the world. Problem is, Holden already did that about 60 years ago.

Jordan Paunov After seeing this movie, by total accident with a friend of mine, and we were literally BLOWN AWAY by it, i have to say that i thought of Zach Braff's "Garden State" and thinking - these are the two movies that define our generation. These are the films that represent the smart people/youths of today's social overview. One of the normal kid and the other of he slightly intellectual, rebellious type, but ultimately, these are the two films that define the post grunge generation (referred to as "Generation Y").These two movies are what "My Own Private Idaho", "Drugstore Cowboy", "Fight Club", "Singles", "Se7en", "Arizona Dream" and many more were to the 90's - showing most importantly that the "youths of today" aren't all hopeless. There are still those smart kids. Thank god.Oh, and by the way - post-grunge-smart kids still worship Soundgarden, Nirvana, Alice In Chains and all 90's music. Grunge ain't dead. It's a state of mind.