Absolutely one of my favorite films

This was on TV again this week. It's been a while since I watched it. This viewing, however, is around my 30th time.

I love this film. Some of the reasons are personal. IGD speaks so much to a time in my life and the people of that time. But even so, when a film can be so intimately evocative, it reflects the quality of that film.

I have read all the criticisms of this film over the years. That it is full of wealthy whiners. That it's just white people problems. That Ollie is a poorly developed character and Ryan Phillippe played to stereotype. That people don't want to see a film starring a Culkin.

I've read them. But I disagree with every one. Of all the films on my list of favorites, this one is the most authentically well done. Everyone played it close to the bone, with the exception of Kieran Culkin's Igby whose desperation shouts out of every word and gesture, much to Kieran's credit. By the time the closing song plays, I'm flattened...every single time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hxkyV3RCu0


It's not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it.
RIP Roger Ebert