Igby Goes Down, the debut from Gore Vidal's nephew Burr Steers, details the coming-of-age of the eponymous Igby (Kieran Culkin). As part of a wealthy New York family headed by a schizophrenic father (Bill Pullman), he is beholden to his older brother Oliver (Ryan Phillippe) while reminding his mother, Mimi (Susan Sarandon), of failure.

After being expelled from every East Coast boarding school, then shipped off to a military academy and finally escaped to Manhattan, Igby goes on the run. Relying on the connections of his mega-rich godfather, D.H. (Jeff Goldblum), he leverages D.H.'s money and girlfriend, Rachel (Amanda Peet), to his advantage. In so doing, he works in the drug trade and falls in love with Sookie Sapperstein (Claire Danes), a cooky, half-Jewish, bohemian, but finds his affection misplaced when Oliver easily seduces her.

Perilously close to losing his way, Igby confronts his mother whose central cruelty and love simultaneously stitches his life into an organizing principle. On her deathbed with both sons assisting her suicide, Mimi provides a cathartic moment in dying. Afterwards, the brothers agree to a real, though limited, affection and separate to become men.

Billed as a comedy, Igby Goes Down is never once filled with a ha-ha moment. Instead, it's a dark effort to inscribe unconventional people stuffed into the trappings of New York's idle rich. Not exactly original when given a long history of urban crazies in the movies, Steers' movie is more successful in its performances than in its milieu.

Everywhere the matriarch, Sarandon's Mimi is mean, mean, mean and this mid-career turn as a nutcracker with few redeeming qualities is a tragicomic queen. Goldblum's longstanding daffiness continues, along with his superlative height and bugged-out eyes, here subdued to participate in the anthropological study of a young man that is the movie. Sturdy in supporting roles, Phillippe, Peet and Danes all provide yeoman's work but Mac's little brother, the younger Culkin, is to whom "igby goes down."

His hero is confused and confusing, attractive yet indifferent. Likewise his journey from rebellion through realization and into the unknown future is a mixed bag. Stock situations crop up, disaffected youth seems an easy theme and the movie's backdrop, though shot in New York City, feels no more real than many TV dramas shot in Studio City, CA.

Still, enough curiosity runs through the picture making it an example of a small movie taking risks without being either a masterwork or a failure. Hopefully, Steers will continue along his chosen path as filmmaker just as his cast members will undoubtedly continue enacting unusual people for our provocation and benefit.