Rushmore Reviews

At last, I have seen all the movies directed by Wes Anderson. Eventually, it took me a while to really get into in this director and, to be honest, I actually thoroughly enjoyed only his 3 last directing efforts. Still, he remains one of the most interesting American directors at work nowadays, at least, one of the most original, and I was really eager to check this sophomore effort. Well, eventually, like most of his work, I thought it was a decent watch but I can't say it really blew me away either. Basically, as usual, there wasn't much of a plot  and there was his usual  tone which always make his movies stand out from the crowd. At this point, he was still going easy on the production design and it is only with his next directing effort ('The Royal Tenenbaums') that Anderson would start to go every time rather over the top with the colors and the vintage details. However, in spite of a rather limited budget, it was still visually neat. Anyway, at the end of the day, whether you care about this movie or not, mostly depends on how much you will connect or like the characters. Well, in my case, I thought they were half quirky and charming and half spoiled and obnoxious so I'm afraid that even though they were interesting enough, I can't say I really cared for them either. It is also with this movie that Wes Anderson will start a very long collaboration with Bill Murray who would be, so far, involved in all his following projects. To conclude, even though I wasn't a huge fan, it was still pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Wes Anderson's works.

The best of Wes Anderson, the right equilibrium of tenderness, comedy, extravance and realism. Schwartzman in his once in a lifetime character. His plays, full of naive FX, are a bonus

I liked this film as much as The Royal Tenenbaums, which was also directed and written by Wes Anderson (co-written with Owen Wilson). Some people might not appreciate the quirkiness of his films, but I enjoy Anderson (and to the same extend Wilson's) dark sense of humour and his skewed yet strangely appealing and profound view of life. As in The Royal Tenenbaums, the characters in this film are quirky, interesting and somewhat disturbed; they're obsessive, disillusioned and sometimes downright unlikable. However, they're also human and capable of growth.

Anderson & Wilson brought to life the idealistic & obsessive teenager Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) and his middle-aged counterpart Herman Blume (Bill Murray). These two characters form a strange bond through their connection to Rushmore. In a way, Blume's disillusion about life fits in nicely with Max's delusion of it. They're both children in different ways. Max cares and does too much (the classic overachiever) while Blume doesn't care enough or does just barely enough.

In the movie, the three main characters, Max, Herman & Rosemary (Olivia Williams) are all obsessed about something. They're bogged down in their own dramas. It reminds me of my favourite quote from Adaptation:

There are too many ideas and too many people. And too many directions to go. I was starting to believe that the reason it matters to care passionately about something, is that is whittles the world down to a more manageable size. - Susan Orlean

Underneath the quirkiness and the insanity of their actions, the characters are plagued with uncertainties and a feeling of losing control over their lives. What I like about the movie is how subtle the motivations behind the actions of the characters are. Anderson never tries to make his movies angsty for angsty's sake. In real life, people don't act like Shakespearean characters who always tell you how they feel and why they act the way they do. Our actions speak who we are. Sure, Anderson's characters are somewhat exaggerated, but they feel human. In Anderson's world, life is comically grotesque and often bitter-sweet, but always hopeful. Such is the charm of life and Rushmore.