Burr Steers’ debut as writer-director is perhaps a little too self-consciously off-kilter, but the film’s humour is satisfyingly sour and the performances of a large ensemble cast are impeccable. Pitched somewhere between the macabre and the merely eccentric, Igby stars a convincingly debauched Kieran Culkin as the film’s eponymous rebellious teen. Igby is much troubled by his father’s breakdown, a sullen juvenile at odds with a world he wants no part of and indeed wants only to drop out of.
Claire Danes and Amanda Peet are excellent as the women he gets involved with, Ryan Phillippe is unbelievably smarmy as Igby’s preppy brother and Susan Sarandon enjoys herself immensely as their monstrous mother. But it’s Jeff Goldblum you’ll remember for a reptilian turn as Igby’s godfather in a sensationally creepy performance.