Rushmore (1998)

Outline: Max Fischer’s (Jason Schwartzman) joie de vivre is attending Rushmore, a prestigious all boys prep school. He is placed on sudden death academic probation about the same time he falls for the school’s first grade teacher, Miss Cross (Olivia Williams), and forms an unlikely friendship with the depressed father of some of his schoolmates, Mr. Blume (Bill Murray).

Back in the day, this film opened to critical acclaim, and I really wanted to see it. When I finally did, I was highly amused, but I must confess that those I saw it with didn’t entirely get it.

I bought it this week-end, and I watched it again. I kept wondering, as I was still highly amused, do I get it better now than I did before?

I decided that when it comes to Wes Anderson (director and co-writer with Owen Wilson), it’s difficult to tell how amused you are because his movies aren’t what you would laugh out loud hilarious. The way they all seem to deal with these small, insane stories over short periods of time suggests that they all start as novellas. They’re actually reminiscent of Nikolay Gogol, the Russian absurdist.

Anderson and Wilson always manage to prevent you from wondering “Wtf?” as the plot progresses in more and more complicated and confusing ways. They make sure that you never question anything that happens.

This is Schwartzman’s first film, and it seems as though Anderson plucked him and his talents little nerdish frame out of thin air.

Murray is obviously Anderson’s main man (they recently completed a third movie together), and I don’t doubt why. Equally adept with comedy as he is with drama, he brings the sadness and quirkiness necessary to such a role.

I don’t particularly care for nor care about Williams in this movie. I feel like I could have been any woman with a British accent in the role.

Yes, I believe I would categorize this movie as absurd rather than a comedy. Fun, yes, but not the kind of funny you might be used to.