Netflix It: Igby Goes Down: Movie, DVD Review (2009)

Written and directed by Burr Steers, 97 minutes, rated R.

Burr Steers' "Igby Goes Down" is enough to make even the most troubled, dysfunctional group seem fun and light-hearted in comparison.

Just look at what it has to offer: a self-destructive, schizophrenic father locked away in a mental institution. An abusive, pill-popping mother so self-absorbed, she could double as a sponge. A high-living, heroin-addicted whore who just wants to be loved.

There's more: a godfather who communicates best with his fists. Sibling rivalry taken to the extreme. And - at the center of it all - poor Igby Slocum (Kieran Culkin), a bright yet aimless 17-year-old boy whose biting wit is reminiscent of Salinger's Holden Caufield's but who, you sense, has a bit more of a backbone.

The film, a smashing debut by Steers, is caustic and dark - and often blisteringly funny. It's also surprisingly moving and affecting, a movie about a shattered, upper-class family on hard times whose emotional wounds run so deep, they'll likely never heal, so why bother trying to fix them? At least that's Igby's philosophy.

The film, which is like "The Royal Tenenbaums" without the quirks, has a terrific cast and some very smart dialogue. It's about a young man overcoming a peculiar situation - a life of wealth, class, high expectations and private schools - and it portrays that situation as every bit as deadly and as dire as any story steeped in the hood.

In it, Susan Sarandon gives it her all as Mimi Slocum, a hateful shrew who poisons her sons, Igby and the older Oliver (Ryan Phillippe), with the sort of love that inspires Igby to call her the Heinous One, apparently because "Medea was already taken." She's perfect in the role, often recalling Bette Davis at her sneering best.

When Igby is kicked out of his umpteenth private school and becomes the official Slocum slacker, he decides he can't bear his mother's barbed insults any longer and pushes to find a way out.

At a party in the Hamptons thrown by his sleazy godfather, D.H. (Jeff Goldblum), Igby befriends two women - the druggy society girl Rachel (Amanda Peet), and the down-to-earth Sookie Sapperstein (Claire Danes) - who help him to see his world for what it is so he can have the power to break free.

While the film is filled with excellent performances, the standout being Culkin, its momentum comes from wondering which way Igby will go. Will he succumb to his situation as his father (Bill Pullman) did and "go down," as the title suggests? Or will life give him a second chance? It takes a murder-suicide to tip the balance in his favor.

Grade: A