Practicalmadness

This morning Amazon.com's front page has beckoned me to "experience the greatness of independent film with Igby Goes Down , the remarkable breakout hit starring Kieran Culkin and Claire Danes."

I think I liked this movie better -- I haven't seen it, mind you -- before I knew that Claire Danes plays the girl. Not that I have a problem with Claire Danes, of course. Or Kieran Culkin either: it's not his fault that his brother's predilection for face-slapping supercuteness made a nation hurl for much of the early 90s. But the presence of even a proto-starlet like Danes legitimizes a production that otherwise could have been easily written off as the self-indulgent ramblings of a director with too much money and nothing really to say.

My apologies to Burr Steers (the director) and all involved; I just have trouble buying a semi-autobiographical story about a disaffected rich kid. I know that The Catcher in the Rye was also about a disaffected rich kid, but unlike this Burr Steers guy, Salinger could write.

Incidentally, Claire Danes fans may go to see her playing Meryl Streep's daughter (who is, in the film version, not a militant superdyke) in The Hours. I didn't really like her in that either (and this one I did see), but only because by the time the Parade of Stars That Is That Movie gets around to Danes, the audience suffocates because all the recognizable actors are taking up all the oxygen. Her performance is impeccable, her chin nice and pointy. Just that by the time the roster gets all the way down to 'Danes, Claire, The Daughter', we just want to get back to England to see if Nicole Kidman's nose is going to fall off.

That said, please click on the link so that I can make money. Thank you. That is all.