Rushmore

There are few finer movies available to rent at your local (independant, I hope) video store than Rushmore, the 1998 brainchild of Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson, the team that brought us the grossly underated Bottle Rocket a few years previous. Rushmore is a fantastic movie, one of the decade's best and certainly well worth your rental dollar.

The story revolves around overacheiver Max Fisher, a scholarship student at the highly regarded private school Rushmore Academy. Max is into pretty much everything extra curricular at Rushmore, from writing and directing the school play to being an alternate on the wrestling team. There is a new teacher at the school named Miss Rosemary Cross, and Max quickly develops an adolescent crush on her. Even though everything about Max seems to be more adult than teenager, it is his crush on his teacher that reminds the audience that he's just a kid. Parallel to this, Max develops a close relationship to Herman Blume, played hilariously by Bill Murray, a Rushmore alum who despises his wife, is ambivalent towards his twin sons, and is basically stumbling through life, until Max comes along. Blume sees a bit of himself in Max and tries to take him under his wing as Max tries to figure out the direction his life is taking. This gives a general sense of the plot of Rushmore, but the true beauty of it lies in the details. Jason Schwartzman does a brilliant job with Max, giving him an underdog tenderness that no viewer can resist. You can't help but cheer for the guy, even when he's acting childish at the dinner table, which accounts for one particularly hilarious scene in the movie. From top to bottom this movie will have you laughing. It's a classic; well written, well directed, wonderfully acted, and has a killer soundtrack as well. With so many formulaic, mundane movies released by Hollywood weekend after weekend, it's all the more wonderful that movies like Rushmore are made. Somehow, every Rushmore makes up for the lack of originality in Hollywood these days. Oh, and if you get the chance, rent Bottle Rocket. It's a fantastic film as well. Wilson and Anderson's next movie, The Royal Tennenbaums will hit theatres early this winter.

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