Review of Igby Goes Down (2002) by Joe V — 25 Sep 2008

I originally saw "Igby" at the movies during its theatrical release and liked it very much but quickly forgot about it. When it was recently aired on TV, I found myself sitting through the entire film again and liking it so much that when the same channel played it again the following week, I watched it yet a third time, becoming ever more deeply emotionally involved in the film with each new screening.

This is really a very major work. If only for the dialogue alone, it should be declared a film classic. The absolutely uncompromising cold-bloodedness of the directorial style reflects the real world so accurately that what emerges on the screen is pure cinema poetry. Allowed to just be what it is, without ever stooping to any internal sentimental editorializing, Igby manages to achieve the elusive Brechtian goal of anti-catharsis, that is to say, instead of making you weep and feeling purged as a result, you walk away from the movie feeling as disturbed and alienated at the synthetically cold world around you as the protagonist you've been watching, contemplating the irremediable, souless, psychotic emptiness of the greater majority of every human being you've ever met.

Nothing is as darkly bitter as an authentic work of social satire. This is the real McCoy. Every performance is startling.

Ryan Philippe is nothing less than chilling, Jeff Goldblum nails it, Bill Pullman is heartbreaking, Kieran Culkin is perfect, and Susan Sarandon gives perhaps the most original performance of her entire career, which, given her monumental track record, is saying a lot.