Rushmore (1998)

Genre: Comedy / Drama

Directed by: Wes Anderson

Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Olivia Williams, Bill Murray

Running time: 93 minutes

Max Fischer (Schwartzman) is not the best student at Rushmore, far from it, but he’s the one involved in the most extracurricular activities. The 15-year old boy is mature for his age but he lacks focus sometimes, so he doesn’t fit in well at his school, though it is a place he loves so much. He strikes a friendship with Herman Blume (Murray), a blasé and cynical, yet rich, manufacturer. Problems arise when both fall in a love with the same woman, a widowed teacher.

Jason Schwartzman was only 17 or 18 when the movie was made and, already, he was showing the promise of a great career, which was launched by this film. He made me like the character of Max Fischer, a mature yet temperamental kid, while he could easily have come off as overbearing and annoying. Many other actors would have fallen flat on their face and made the character unpleasant. I for one found myself rooting for that boy who was filled with ideas and, mostly, idealism.

Bill Murray has also found a new niche for the rest of his career with Rushmore, making a foray into independent films. He was brilliant here, as he has shown to be in recent years. He brings this aged cynical Herman Blume to life, a guy that looks to his young friend with admiration for still having a dream and wanting to pursue it. We have all rediscovered the talented man that is Bill Murray and we are glad for it.

Olivia Williams was efficient in the role of the object of two protagonist’s desires. She did not have much to work with, but she was good with what she had.

This is the second film in Wes Anderson’s filmography. After Bottle Rocket, he was quickly finding his groove and his style. The use of color and texture was more prevalent in his following film, The Royal Tenenbaums, but, with Rushmore, he was already showing his knack for matching music to scenes. Many times through the movie, a song would play in the background and it hooked me even harder to what was happening on the screen.

Rushmore is a coming-of-age story, a movie of love and friendship, of dreams versus cynicism. Wes Anderson was coming into his own here, and he gave us an off-beat film that made us laugh, cry, smile and think back to those years when we had everything to look forward to and didn’t always know what to do with it.

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