Igby Goes Down

Though Igby Goes Down wears its Salinger reference points a bit too prominently on its sleeve, this youthful fable about the perils of falling into the hypocrisies and compromises of adulthood is still a bittersweet delight.

The impressive Kieran Culkin (how many kids did these people have?) is our titular Holden Caulfield understudy. He’s already been kicked out of every boarding school on the East Coast, and must negotiate a tightrope between his tyranical mother (Sarandon), his schizophrenic dad (Bill Pullman), his ruthless capitalist godfather (Jeff Goldblum) and his chilling Young Republican older brother (Ryan Phillippe, well cast).

Between this dysfunctional bunch and Igby’s self-styled ‘eccentric’ girlfriend (Danes), the film offers plenty of upper-class sophomore speak, and while it’s not quite able to replicate the sparkling repartee of a Whit Stillman script, it’s witty and keenly observed nonetheless.

Ultimately, like the similar Ghost World, this is a superior me-against-the-planet teen flick, and not even the presence of the infernal Dandy Warhols on the soundtrack can take that away from it.