Whilst sitting down for to watch this highly amusing bout of fuck-flinging, The Duchess asked me if it was made by the fella what did Cruel Intentions. It isn't, but the similarities are striking. This, too, concerns itself with the upper-middle classes, self-absorbed beyond any comprehension, each nursing a multitude of idiosyncrasies and "issues". It also has Ryan Phillipe doing his egotistical, sex-obsessed bastard shtick. The difference, though, is that Igby Goes Down provides a human anchor amidst all these ghastly caricatures, namely Igby himself, the one who goes down, as is evidenced in the title. Whilst he is a cheeky, f-word-crazed shit, he at least has something approaching a third dimension with regards the characterisation, and is as contemptuous towards the surrounding grotesques as we are invited to be. Bizarrely, Kieran Culkin comes across less as the younger brother of Macaulay and more like some genetic offshoot from Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal. Like if they sat in a row, you'd bet anything that it was some kind of modern art recreation of The Ages Of Man.

High-Brow, motherfucker.

Despite this human anchorage, however, one would be somewhat misguided to assume there is a great deal of humanity on display.

Debut writer / director Burr Steers seems to delight in filling the screen with as much loathsome behaviour as he can muster, and any individuals who appear to be slightly less disgusting than the others, are quickly and efficiently degraded for our pleasure, be it via sudden bursts of violence, or having them sit on toilets half asleep, trousers at the knees and chemicals bounding through their veins.

The actors and actresses who perform these tasks, however, amount to a very impressive cast for such a small budget endeavour. Steers was a one-time pupil of Jeff Goldblum, so memorable as a tall guy in The Tall Guy and a fly in The Fly, and as a result, Goldblum turns in a fantastically offbeat performance. There's also Susan Sarandon, whom we first encounter as she as suffocated with the aid of her sons and a strategically positioned plastic bag. There's also Claire Danes, and that's without even mentioning the presence of two Culkins, with Rory standing in as "10-year-old Igby".

Adding to this semi-star-studded grouping is Bill Pullman, who, in perhaps the most heart-battering role, plays Igby's schizophrenic father, a fella who appears onscreen to offer brief glimpses of a truly damaged psyche. We see him punch his way through a shower door, we watch as he stares into some unfathomable dimension, oblivious to the presence of anyone else, and learn of the contents of his desk; thousands of pristinely arranged cigarettes.