Rushmore – Wes Anderson
http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=rushmore
“She was my Rushmore.”



From Amazon:
Wes Anderson's dazzling sophomore effort is equal parts coming-of-age story, French New Wave homage, and screwball comedy. Tenth grader Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) is Rushmore Academy's most extracurricular student-and its least scholarly. He faces expulsion, and enters into unlikely friendships with both a lovely first-grade teacher (Olivia Williams) and a melancholy self-made millionaire (Bill Murray, in an award-winning performance). Set to a soundtrack of classic British Invasion tunes, Rushmore defies categorization even as it captures the pain and exuberance of adolescence with wit, emotional depth, and cinematic panache.

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In the revolving door of my top movies of all times, this is one that has never left. I love Wes Anderson movies because the plot (usually) takes a backseat to character development and dialogue. This remains my favorite WA film, as it has a more stripped down, lower scale feel to it. The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic are more ambitious in their storytelling, and I prefer the almost "down home" feeling of grounding that I get at the school and following Max around. This movie has some of the best character interactions ever filmed, as well.

Max Fischer: So you were in Vietnam?
Herman Blume: Yeah.
Max Fischer: Were you in the shit?
Herman Blume: Yeah, I was in the shit.

I’ve always loved Bill Murray, but it wasn’t until this movie that I fell in love with him. I still think nowadays he gets a little too much credit for his acting chops, but I still think that this has been his best role and performance. I still laugh out loud every time I see him hit that basketball, and later when he’s smoking in the hospital elevator and putting his trash in the clean linens.

Max Fischer: [to Rosemary] So we both have dead people in our families.

What I love about this movie is attention to characters and whether or not they change. Arguably, you could say Max is the only character that really changes (or rather that he doesn’t). Sure, Herman kind of pulls it together at the end, but only at the mercy and whims of Max and Rosemary. One thing this movie portrays well is that people don’t change, and if they do, it’s only enough to make things comfortable. People only want to grow so much without losing their identity. Max comes around to not be such a little shit, but only because everyone hates him.

I think this film really sets the stage for Wes Anderson’s brand of kooky dramedy that many of us cherish higher than most entertainment. It’s just such a little funny and touching story, and unlike a certain RMer’s argument of Anderson making his characters unidentifiable to ourselves, I don’t see that at all in this movie. Every one has his or her selfish, assholey sides, and we’ve all done irrational things in the name of what we think is love.

Anderson definitely likes to turn up the absurdity level, and it's present in Rushmore, but it's much more subtle than in his latter films. I can understand how some may feel it takes work to love The Life Aquatic, but this film is so honest and endearing, it's hard not to love it face value. Everything from the soundtrack and the wonderful play sequences just makes this film such a joy to watch, and I know for damn sure that it will always be in my top film of all time.

Mr. Littlejeans: Best play ever, man.

I rented this on video when it came out, and I had absolutely no idea what to expect (all I knew of it was that most critics were hailing Bill Murray's performance). I watched it with my girlfriend, and she absolutely hated it. She thought it was boring, but I thought it was fascinating. Not fascinating in the vein of a film like 2001, but more in the vein of...well, I can't really compare it to anything else. I loved how offbeat and quirky it was, and a part of me believes that a film like Napoleon Dynamite - love it or hate it - would never have come to be if Rushmore didn't pave a small road first.

I pretty much agree with everything Bond wrote in the header post, but I will add one more thing: the soundtrack is absolutely superb, and one of the best I've ever bought. Even if you despise the film, you have to give credit where credit is due, and the soundtrack deserves all the credit in the world. This soundtrack was one of my favorite albums released that year, and I can listen to it over and over again. Standout tracks by The Who, The Kinds, Cat Stevens, Chad & Jeremy, etc. I love it.

4 stars.

well, he's a unique character. i'll give him that. and bill murray's always fun.

but this movie didn't do it for me. i think maybe it was necessary to identify with max in some way to get more involved in the film. just my theory...

of course, fave line:

So you're a nurse

These are OR scrubs

OR they?

One of my all time favorites, and my favorite Wes Anderson film. The character of Max Fisher is brilliantly conceived (and played) and Bill Murray has never been better. It's wonderfully written, shot, edited, scored, everything. 10 out of 10.

Two Wes Anderson pics in a row?

Good observation captain obvious. Do you have any more completely obvious statements to make today?

Next week will mark the third straight Anderson movie. We're gearing up for his new one this fall.

I was just thinking you guys could skip the middle man and do a Truffaut film, that's all.

or maybe we can all masturbate our gigantic egos onto any new movies that are ALL worse than the old films.

I'm gonna remember this shit when someone says we can't do all horror movies in October.

You're in quite a mood.

I don't think anyone ever asked me that, but it sounds like a good idea. Get ready to do some write-ups in October, pal.

What is that supposed to mean?

One of my favorite movies. A point that isn't really made in anything above that i'm amazed by is that not a single line in this movie is wasted. Every moment adds to character and the story. This movie is so dense with moments I would argue wes anderson has a complete control of the medium in this story. Not only do I love the substance of the movie, but the technical execution is superb.

Also my favorite line.

Dad: It's like one of those clipper ship captains, your married to the sea
Max: Yes that's true dad, but I've been out to sea for a long time now.

One thing I find interesting in this movie and there's a little bit of it in The Royal Tennenbaums is the presence of the ocean in his movies which eventually came out fully in the life aquatic. Here the book he finds that links him to ms. cross is about the ocean, he tries to build the aquarium, and the quote above. It's like he's in love with the sea, and ms. cross is his was to love the sea through a person. but also in royal tennenbaums the book margot reads is about the ocean. i think there was an inevitability that wes would do a movie with an ocean.

That's because somebody had to go sort their life out or some such nonsense. I still like to think you were just waist deep in poon.

Anyway, I think we should. It would help get everyone in the spirit. I'll do some and I'm sure bond would as well. Maybe bart d. would like to as well. We might get a nice mix like that.

I'd love for Bart D. to do one. It should be a lot of fun, actually. We'll discuss this further towards the end of September.

I dunno. I might be too busy masturbating my gigantic ego onto various things.

The scene where Bill Murray steals the basketball and goes for the slam dunk is one of the funniest I've ever seen. I need to buy this movie soon.

This movie is just fantastic. Bill Murray is absolutely brilliant in it and the soundtrack is, indeed, superb.