Igby Goes Down

Finding inspiration in such films as Mike Nichols's THE GRADUATE (1967) and CARNAL KNOWLEDGE (1971), actor-turned-director Burr Steers's debut feature is a throwback to the kind of literate, melancholy coming-of-age dramas that once defined youthful male angst. The film even opens with a morbid scenario that wouldn't have been out of place in Hal Ashby's HAROLD AND MAUDE: Seventeen-year-old Jason Slocumb Jr. (Kieran Culkin) — dubbed "Igby" by his seriously dysfunctional upper-crust family — watches as his well-heeled older brother, Oliver (Ryan Phillippe), suffocates their unconscious mother, Mimi (Susan Sarandon), with a plastic bag. But, as the film proceeds to dem...