RUSHMORE Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams, Seymour Cassel, Brian Cox, Mason Gamble, Sara Tanaka Director: Wes Anderson Screenplay: Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson Reviewed by Luke Buckmaster
On the Buckmaster scale of 0 stars (bomb), to 5 stars (a masterpiece): 4 stars
There are quirky films, and then there is Rushmore, a film that is intent on deviating from the norm of filmmaking. The "hero" of this story is unlike any other in recent memory. Geeky but sort of cool Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman, in a bold debut performance) is a wacky protagonist, a guy with a mean attitude but a soft center. Playing alongside Schwartzman is Bill Murray (in one of his better roles of recent years), who has an equally peculiar character. Murray and Schwartzman live out every comedian's dream: they get to act simultaneously smart and silly, and receive a whole lot of laughs in the process. To further compliment the production, Wes Anderson directs Rushmore intelligently and humorously, whilst not stripping his intelligent moments of humor, and not making his humor particularly intelligent.
Max is a 10th grader at Rushmore Academy, and for him, school is his life. He is involved in numerous extracurricular roles, ranging from captain of the fencing and debating teams to the founder of the Double-team Dodgeball Society. With his thick rimmed glasses, blazer and quick thinking mind, Max is often thought of as a kid genius. Truth is, he's a lousy student and is under constant threat of expulsion. Max falls in love with a first grade teacher named Miss Cross (Olivia Williams), and tries to win her over by hatching various plans. When Latin classes are about to be replaced by Japanese, Max cleverly makes the subject compulsory for all senior years; later, he attempts to construct an aquarium on Rushmore's baseball field.
To help raise money, Max consults school benefactor Mr. Blume (Bill Murray), a seedy millionaire who appears to be in the middle of a mid-life crisis. Blume is attracted to Max's energy and eccentric ways, and the two become good friends. But when Max discovers that Blume is also in love with Miss Cross, a mean war initiates between the two (at one stage, Blume runs over Max's bicycle, so Max removes the brakes from his car). As Max desperately attempts to act like an adult, Blume finds excitement in acting like a child.
Almost all of Rushmore's oddly timed humor relies on its characters. Whilst we develop a good understanding of Max and Blume's personalities, they are never predictable and never boring. The relationship between these two really needed to work, and it does, much to the credit of Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray. Schwartzman's first film performance is a memorable one, and is skillfully played with a mixture of nastiness and goofy sincerity. Murray has received great but small roles recently in Wildthings and Kingpin, but his work in Rushmore is much closer to what he is capable of achieving. Murray is a brilliant comic performer and this film channels his capabilities, producing a nice bit of whimsical acting.
It's the winning formula of offbeat comedy and drama that makes Rushmore such a delight to watch. Wes Anderson's and co-writer Owen Wilson's screenplay is smart and original - they understand how to craft extraordinary characters, and have fun doing so. Though some scenes in Rushmore have little or no point, the film is always amusing enough to warrant an audience. Rushmore has reinvented the teenage comedy genre (similar to what The Breakfast Club did in 1985, and what Can't Hardly Wait attempted to do in 1998) by giving itself a quirkiness and originality that is rarely found in contemporary cinema. There are more reasons to see Rushmore other than its originality, but none are quite as refreshing.
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