one of my favorite films ever
Added 7/27/2009
I loved the movie since the first time a saw it, to some it may be just another coming of age film but I really find it cleansing and the way in which it portrays human nature is rare to find plus a je n'sais quoi that moves me every time. A valuable piece to any DVD collection.
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Growing up can be difficult (and dangerous)
Added 11/16/2008
I watched this on a recommendation from a friend, not really knowing anything about it going in, except that it was based on the novel by the late Chris Fuhrman. I sort of expected a routine coming-of-age story -- but while it focuses on a small group of adolescent Catholic schoolboys (and one girl) growing up in Savannah in the 1970s, it's anything but routine. Francis Doyle (Emile Hirsch, a newcomer to me) and Tim Sullivan (Kieran Culkin, who is a better actor than his better-known brother) are struggling with their hormones and boredom and the discipline meted out by an especially strict nun (Jodie Foster, who nicely underplays the role). Francis is in love for the first time with Margie Flynn (Jena Malone), who seems as innocent and tentative as he is -- but she has a secret, and another secret within that, both of which she eventually shares with Francis. Who finally has to share his burden and tells Tim, who can't quite keep his mouth shut, either. Francis is a talented artist and the four friends contribute plots and characters to an ongoing superhero comic book Francis draws. (Sister Assumpta, of course, is "Nunzilla," the villain of the piece.) The live action is interspersed with the boys' animated alter egos, which is an interesting way of getting the viewer inside their heads and emotions. The third plotline involves a cougar kept at a small zoo, which becomes the focus of an extreme prank planned against Sister Assumpta -- but which (not unexpectedly) ends in extreme tragedy. The film starts off lightheartedly, gradually becoming darker and more serious as the various plotlines progress. The acting is first-rate, especially considering Foster and Vincent D'Onofrio (as Father Casey, also underplaying his few scenes) are the only adults with more than a single line. As an aside, Jodie Foster was forty years old here but she looks no more than twenty-five. Amazing. An affecting film.
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Not So Innocent
Added 8/16/2008
The Secret Lives of Altar Boys can be pretty raw in language and deeds, perhaps a bit preteniously so in places, and yet, it merely sets the stage for who these boys are and where they are on the evolutionary scale. There is a tendency in the beginning to show that these boys are rather "charmed", which makes it that much more startling when their luck runs out in a rather grusome manner. Vincent D'Onofrio does a fine job playing the priest who is quite willing to endure the misbehavior of the boys, until he gets an inside look of how they see him. Then, he takes a more serious tone, searching for where he went wrong with the lads? While not trying to give away the ending, the "loss" isn't really dealt with in a satisfying way. One would have hoped that a stronger moral character developed as a result, rather than the launching of what might have been in that age the same as becoming a rock star today. There was a feeling that the character suffered, yes, but failed to "grow".
This movie will not fail to entertain. It's quite believable. In fact, in places, it's "award worthy" - especially when they find a dog by the roadside - excellently done!
This was given 5 stars because when it was good it was so good that it's not to be missed. This is an "adult" movie...definately not for young children.
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A must see!!!
Added 4/9/2008
i first saw this movie maybe...5 years ago...and i still enjoy watching it from time to time...this movie shows the lives of a group of alter boys as they go through school and the everyday jams...the acting is great...the story is great...i love everything about this movie...the ending is pretty sad...i think this movie will make most people laugh about the stuff they did when they were younger...(not to say that anyone ever did the stuff from the movie...but just referring to stupid stuff that kids do)
def get this movie as a rental or just pick it up used and watch it with some friends
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Not bad once it gets going.
Added 1/3/2008
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (Peter Care, 2002)
I wanted to hate this movie. And for the first half, I did a pretty good job. There's just something about any film touched by a member of the Culkin clan (the last movie I remember seeing with a Culkin in it that I really liked was Jacob's Ladder) that manages to rub me the wrong way; it's like someone took a whole slew of Albert Brooks clones and put them into a single family. By the end of this, however, I admit I was hooked.
The story centers on Francis Doyle (Lords of Dogtown's Emile Hirsch) and Tim Sullivan (Kieran Culkin), two Catholic-school students who are part of a small collective of artists working on a comic book called The Atomic Trio. The comic book, which is pretty nasty by any standards, is considered positively obscene by the teachers, when they discover it, in no small part because one of the villains is modeled after Sister Assumpta (Jodie Foster). When she gets hold of the thing, she takes it to the headmaster, Father Casey (Voncent D'Onofrio), whose boys-will-be-boys attitude doesn't make her terribly happy. Not that that matters to the kids, who retaliate by planning the biggest prank the school's ever seen. Of course, they hold the previous record, having nicked a statue from the school's bell tower and hidden it in a nearby mausoleum, which has become the group's de facto clubhouse. Everything gets more complex when Francis finds himself attracted to fellow student Margie Flynn (Jena Malone of the forthcoming The Ruins).
About the best thing I can say about the first half of the film is that it's not terrible. It's competently done, but it's all setup, and it's not very interesting setup at that. Once they start planning their harebrained prank, however, things pick up nicely, and we finally start getting a feeling for these characters. Screenwriters Jeff Stockwell and Michael Petroni open the storyline up a bit, introducing us to a more interesting batch of folks than we've met previously (namely Margie's very off-the-wall family, who despite getting almost no screen time steal the show) and giving us a lot more insight into most of the characters we already know. The odd exception is Sister Assumpta, who remains as much a two-dimensional villain as the artistic renderings of her done by her students.
In the end, it's not bad, but it could have been a great deal better, and the second half is proof of that. ** ½
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Great flick? Yes - Kieran Culkin and Jeff Goldblum are astounding
Added 6/14/2009
and then you've got Susan Sarandon, playing Mother Ice Queen to perfection. The movie is something of a treatise on the emptiness of well-moneyed society (it's quite different from the emptiness of poorly-moneyed society). Goldblum moves with an inner light of vicious cunning and leering evil, all done up in Central Park West finery. And Culkin convincingly portrays a badly damaged kid, Igby, for whom failure should be not an option but the only possible outcome. Yet he shows an inner light, small and sometimes flickering fitfully, that could mean of all the lives we see examined in the story, it is Igby's life that does not go down.
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Painfully funny and honest
Added 2/28/2009
Igby Slocumb (Kieran Culkin) is a rebellious seventeen year old who dreams of getting as far away from his crazy family as he can. Haunted by his father Jason (Bill Pullman)'s breakdown when he was little Igby lashes out at his mother Mimi (Susan Sarandon) who is constantly putting her husband down. Mimi dotes on Igby's older brother Oliver (Ryan Phillippe) who is being molded in her image which causes resentment between him and Igby. Igby is constantly mouthing off which has resulted in his expulsion from numerous schools. His mother, in a last ditch effort to straighten Igby out, enrolls him in a military academy. Ingenious Igby finds a way to misbehave there as well and at the first chance he gets he escapes and hightails it to Manhattan where his rich godfather D.H. (Jeff Goldblum) lives. D.H. offers Igby a job for the summer and Igby meets Rachel (Amanda Peet) who is D.H.'s mistress. She rents a loft from D.H. and Igby asks if he can hide out there. Rachel hesitantly agrees as long as he takes the proper precautions to insure that D.H. will never know about it. Now that Igby is amongst the rich and privileged he attends his first Hamptons party where he meets Sookie (Claire Danes). Igby teases her about her name but Sookie doesn't seem to mind. Something about Igby interests her and the two start hanging out and getting to know each other. Sookie wants to know why Igby is so mad at his family and what he plans on doing with his life. After much playful teasing and Igby's sarcastic answers he opens up to Sookie and tells her that he is scared of being alone and that he wants someone to go with him. The two begin a romance that is very sweet to watch thanks to the brilliant acting of Culkin and Danes. With a spacious loft and a hot girl to take there things are looking up for Igby. Igby's family eventually spoil things for him once again. Rachel o.d.'s at D.H.'s loft and in the process of getting her to the hospital D.H. learns that Igby has been staying there. The next day Oliver pays Igby a visit and informs him that their mother is dying of cancer. While Oliver is in Manhattan he meets Sookie and he tells her what Igby won't about their childhood and their father's illness. Sookie falls for him which gives Igby further reason to hate his brother. All alone and with no place to go Igby has to find the strength in himself to forgive his family and move on with his life. Igby Goes Down is very similar to many a teen film that has come before it most notably the Graduate or Garden State but what makes this film stand apart is its brilliant writing and sensitive portrayals of the characters. The film is full of wicked laughs courtesy of Igby who uses his sarcasm as a shield against others and who can always be counted on for coming up with a funny put down. Balancing out the humor are very emotional and sensitive scenes that deal with the effects that a serious illness has on a family. In the last act of the film Igby pays a visit to both his dying mother and his institutionalized father and the scenes are heartbreaking to watch. Even if a film tells a familiar story it can still be something special if it is done well and Igby Goes Down is proof of that.
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Poor Igby
Added 10/8/2008
Looking back, it seems American indie filmmakers in the late 90's, early millenial were just crawling over each other to find a way of representing the more dysfunctional family. Igby Goes Down is a good movie, and has its exceptional moments, but time is already starting to drag on this one.
Igby is rich, he keeps getting kicked out of school, his father is insane, he hates his mother, his brother is a "Young Republican", his Godfather is Jeff Goldblum, and he just is feeling so darned existential all the time. He runs around New York being phony (hence the thousands of people comparing him to Holden Caulfield), attends parties in which he feels alienated (hence the thousands of people comparing him to Ben Braddock), and purposefully attempts to make things awkward to get the attention of his mother (hence my comparing him to Harold Chasen). He's also a teenager's wish fulfillment fantasy as he manages to sleep with hot women who are either not concerned with having a relationship or pleasantly reject him so that he can feel more alienated, run around New York being gloomy and hep, and, well, get his parents out of the way from time to time.
Hey, I'm not complaining: all of that is good justification for watching this movie. However, not all of it was all that great. One of the things that kind of ruined it for me was the character Sookie's relationship with Igby and his brother. Now, I'm sorry, but who starts relationships with two brothers based entirely on their bemoaning hatred of their mother? Really, who does that? "Oh, give me more of that angry childhood trauma, baby, you talk so sexy..."
Nonetheless, most of the beginning is funny, the scene that bookmarks the movie is really cool, and its episodic structure helps it keep moving (this movie is kind of like the weather: if you don't like the scene, it will probably soon change).
Anyway, cute film.
--PolarisDiB
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