In 2002, Kieran Culkin played a troubled young man who heads to New York City and makes trouble in “Igby Goes Down.”
Now, 12 years later, his younger brother Rory is taking a similar setup to a much darker extreme in “Gabriel,” a drama that is making its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival.
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The youngest Culkin gives an electrifying performance as a mentally ill teenager who leaves his treatment facility in search of past lives and loves that may no longer be available. Pushing and pulling with his mother (Deirdre O’Connell) and clean-cut brother (David Call), Culkin’s Gabriel is frenetic and unpredictable, sympathetic while also potentially dangerous.
Written and directed by Lou Howe, the film is unblinking in its portrayal of a lost and ill teenager.