Review: Rushmore (1998)

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Rushmore

Rating

Director

Wes Anderson

Screenplay

Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson

Length

1h 33m

Starring

Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams, Seymour Cassel, Brian Cox, Mason Gamble, Sara Tanaka, Stephen McCole, Connie Nielsen, Luke Wilson, Deepak Pallana, Andrew Wilson

MPAA Rating

Basic Plot

A trouble-making teen falls in love with a teacher who feels he’s too young to have a relationship with.

Review

If you’ve ever seen “Welcome to the Dollhouse” or “Young Poisoner’s Handbook,” you’ll know what kind of a kid Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) is. He’s a slightly neurotic, problem-ridden teen who has decided to spend his entire life attending Rushmore private school, even if he is a bit old for the school. Fischer is one of those teens who devotes more time to extracurricular activities than to his own schoolwork with a twist. Fischer has founded over 20 different organizations from fencing societies to foreign language clubs.

“Rushmore” is about Fischer’s life in this school. He writes his own plays and produces and directs them for the children at Rushmore. During a class assembly where keynote speaker Herman Blume (Bill Murray) is giving a rather unimpassioned speech that most of the audience finds boring and pointless, while Fischer finds it wonderful.

While sitting in the bleachers of the sports field, he meets a young teacher named Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams). Rather awkward in these kinds of situations, Fischer brings up the cancellation of the school’s Latin programs. While Max supports their cancellation, Cross does not. In love (or perhaps lust), Fischer decides to champion the reinstatement of the courses. He succeeds and thinks that it will be enough to impress Cross.

Fischer isn’t your typical teenager. He’s plotting, crude, rude and has a low moral center. He’ll do anything he can to get his way. When he discovers that Miss Cross loves fish, he goes to Blume and asks for a loan to help construct a research aquarium on campus. Everything that Cross wants he tries to get.

The major problem comes when Cross, still insistent that Max is too young, starts dating Blume. Max doesn’t like the arrangement and starts sabotaging the situation.

“Rushmore” is a smart film with great performances all around. Murray is delightfully depressed, atypical of his normal, meatballs-ian characters. Schwartzman is a real discovery giving one of the best juvenile performances of 1998.

“Rushmore” has a great plot and some witty dialogue. The Fischer plays are fantastic and a great touch to the film. Its major failing grace is its perpetually slow pace.

“Rushmore” is an interesting movie that will appeal to a very small audience, but will nonetheless impress.