Intelligent or unnatural script? Igby goes down

Is the language natural or too scholarly?

Hey all,
I want to know what you think of some quotes from the “Igby Goes Down” movie script. Many reviewers hailed the dialogue in this movie as witty and sharp, but I needed a dictionary to understand much of it. The film is a modern “Catcher in the Rye” story about an upper-crust kid, Igby, who drops out of high school for a bohemian lifestyle. I compiled some of the most confounding quotes. I believe this movie challenges viewers to re-master language. I’m having a hard time believing that all these characters could regurgitate so many great words on command. In a world where we’re happy if we get to use that one “good” word of the day, the dialogue seems somewhat unrealistic.

Do you think, after reading the quotes I list, the movie just kills language? Is this language natural?


Do you, upon first reading the quotes, know the meaning of every word? Most words? Do you think the scriptwriter or editor could’ve rephrased what was said in a simpler way?

Check out these 5 conversations:

1# Igby: How many Vassar professors and intellectual theologians beget nymphomaniacal, pseudo-Bohemian JAPs?

Sookie: I am not a JAP.


2# Sookie: You call your mother "Mimi"?

Igby: "Heinous One" is a bit cumbersome.
[Sookie nods]

Igby: And Medea was taken.


3# Igby: It's incredible that a human being can make such neat, little joints.

Sookie: You make it sound as if I'm anal or something, just because I know how to roll a perfect joint.

Igby: No, not anal. Vegetarian.

Sookie: Well, what does that mean?

Igby: Well, you don't roll like, big rasta spliff joints, do you? Your joints are like salad joints, not like a big, sloppy, bleeding cheeseburger-that-you-rip-into-kind-of-a-joint joint.

Sookie: I guess marijuana isn't a visceral experience for me. Sex is for me.

Igby: Right.


4# Mrs. Piggee: And you, you, ummm... well this is what you're up to.

Igby: Bigger picture Darwinism.


5# Igby: He will lie to you! He will use you up and marry some inbred Darien Frau who will beget him all the towheaded brats he can afford. They are rigid and they are cold! And you don't know! They are cold, cold, cold to the fucking bone!