Igby Goes Down is a film that tells it like it is.

"I'm drowning in assholes," 17-year-old Igby Slocumb (Kieran Culkin) tells a friend in the middle of Igby Goes Down.

As one can see, this teenager is disaffected with life, loathing most of the people he encounters in his parents' affluent, WASP world.

This teen angst does not disappear as the film progresses, and it is for this reason that Igby succeeds. Watching the film, one quickly realizes that while unhappy adolescence may not be fun, it can certainly be entertaining.

Igby Goes Down hit movie theaters last fall with more of a whimper than a bang. Although the film impressed most critics, it never caught on with a large audience, probably due to its limited release.

What most filmgoers missed out on was a dark comic gem, one that many have compared to The Graduate and The Catcher in the Rye.

Like Holden Caulfield and Ben Braddock, Igby is simultaneously rebellious and preppy. Coming from a screwed up but wealthy family, Igby is a disenchanted prep-school student who challenges authority. Thrown out of several boarding schools, Igby soon finds himself in military school when his self-absorbed mother, Mimi (the hilarious Susan Surandon), decides she has had enough of his antics. It's only a matter of time, though, before Igby escapes to New York City, where he crashes in his wealthy godfather D.H.'s (Jeff Goldblum) comfy SoHo loft.

Hiding out from his mother and older brother Oliver (Ryan Philippe), both of whom want to send Igby back to school, Igby lives in "subsidized poverty" in a bohemian world, where he forges relationships with D.H.'s inviting yet troubled mistress, Rachel (Amanda Peet), and the mercurial Sookie (Claire Daines), a college student taking time off in Manhattan. Things go well for Igby in this world; that is, until his family finds him.

What makes Igby such a treat is the film's dark, acerbic writing. Several lines in the film had me both laughing and wincing. Equally important is the film's great cast: Surandon steals the show as Mimi, so evil a woman that you can't help but love her, while Culkin is in his element as Igby, who he makes both tough and vulnerable. Philippe and Goldblum also shine, portraying complex and interesting characters.

There are several intriguing characters in the film, and, strangely, this becomes problematic at the end, probably because the filmmakers seemingly didn't have enough time to resolve all their problems.

Regardless, Igby remains a biting, entertaining comedy, one that will hopefully find an audience in America's video stores.