Rushmore

Rating:
Summary: A Great Modern Comedy
Review: I was originally drawn to this movie not because of Wes Anderson, but because of Bill Murray. I had not even heard of Wes Anderson at that point. But after viewing "Rushmore," I want to see both "Bottle Rocket" and "The Royal Tenenbaums" immediately. In the age of Adam Sandlers and Jim Carreys, it seems as if so-called 'smart comedy' was beginning to die out. This film keeps it alive. This is subtle humor at its finest. Jason Schwartzman is fantastic as Max, a young, ambitious, oddball at Rushmore Academy. Bill Murray stars as an older tycoon who is vying for the same woman as Max. The comedy here is subtle, but that's not to say you won't laugh out loud. Also, much of the humor is of a darker tone than you see nowadays. A great cast, screenplay, and also an interesting soundtrack are enough to make this movie one of my favorites.

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie with Great Extras
Review: When i first watched the ordinary dvd of rushmore....i was in awe of just the movie alone. its a hilarious movie but not with the kind of crappy slapstick humor we see in martin lawrence or leslie nielson movies. its subtle dudes. by the way the plot is one of the best ever, so different and unexpected. and with the criterion collection, they've added interviews, shorts, audition tapes....its awesome. P.S. when watching the audition tape, go to the one with the twins, jason swartzman (max fisher) is hilarious when portraying mr. bloom

Rating:
Summary: An epic love triangle of a man, a woman, and a boy...
Review: The true love triangle involves bonds of affections in all directions. It is Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot and their tortured relationships rather than Rhett loving Scarlett who loves Ashley who loves Melanie. The true epic love triangle is difficult to carry off; recent case in point, "Pearl Harbor." However, in "Rushmore," we are once again fortunately enough to scale the heights of love the true love triangle.

If we follow the figurational logic of our paradigmatic example, then Bill Murray as Mr. Herman J. Blume is our Arthur, the king of all the limited world he surveys, but disenchanted with both his life and his wife. As our Lancelot we have Jason Schwartzman as Max Fischer, Mr. Extra-Curricular Activities at Rushmore, the prep school where in we lay our scene. The bond between the two is what comes first, with Blume seeing Max as the son he never had (he cannot abide the twins he does have), and Max seeing Blume as the father of his dreams (Max loves his father, but tells everyone his father is a neurosurgeon rather than a barber). It is Max who stumbles upon their Guinevere, Olivia Williams as Miss Rosemary Cross, a teacher at Rushmore. Recently a widow, she is amused and flattered by Max's attention (He saves the Latin classes as a token of his affection), but obviously does not know where to draw the line. When Blume becomes enamored of her as well, the relationship between the two males becomes, shall we say, strained.

Ironically, the more they go after each other, the more Blume and Max prove their true affinity for one another. Your assumption is that "Rushmore" will end when the dust has settled and we see if anybody is left alive on the battlefield, but writers Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson have higher aspirations. The three main actors all turn in marvelously understated and subtle performances (yes, even Murray), so even though the action is going over the top, the film does not. Every absurdity seems well grounded in the created reality of the world we are visiting. For this Anderson gets additional credit as director. "Rushmore" is a film that is wickedly funny without being wickedly cynical. The obvious double bill for this film would be "Election," which will only serve to underscore the effectiveness of the more subtle performances in "Rushmore."

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely fantastic!!!!
Review: There aren't really words that could truly explain how good this movie is. All I can say is that if you haven't seen it you need to watch it and then again and then again :)
Wes Anderson is an incredible directror and the writing team of him and Owen Wilson is one that's very hard to beat. All of the movies that they made together need to be seen by everyone!

Rating:
Summary: Rushmore Criterion Collection is Amazing
Review: Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson have unvailed a masterwork. This will be a movie to rival The Graduate and many others. Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, and Olivia Williams are fantastic. I've watched this movie so many times before purchasing the Criterion Collection and can't say enough. If you like the movie and wonder if the cost of the criterion vs the regular release is worth it, yes. This DVD is almost perfect. A must have for DVD collectors.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect!
Review: This is one of those movies that after watching it for the first time I realized I needed to own it as soon as possible. I had rented the bare bones version. After doing some research on Amazon.com I discovered that there was the holy grail of DVD collections available for this cinematic masterpiece. The Criterion Collection! I purchased this DVD with no hesitation and I couldn't be happier. If you've seen the movie I'm sure you will agree with me that Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson are a blessing to movie buffs everywhere. This DVD collection is perfect! I don't think anything is missing from this DVD. A must buy.

Rating:
Summary: Go back to school at "Rushmore" Academy...
Review: I have decided that we need more films like this one. I propose to start a club dedicated to making good, quality films. Even if it's without the approval of the Dean.

Or we could just talk about how great this film is.

"Rushmore" stars the son of Talia Shire("Rocky"), Jason Schwartzman(of the highly-awful SLACKERS) in his debut performance as an overachieving student of Rushmore Academy named Max Fischer. Max does everything one could possibly do at a school except for keeping his grades high which suffer due to all the activites he works on. He runs clubs dedicated to stamp-collecting, astronomy, fencing, and debating, just to name a few and when he's not doing all this, he's directing "hit-plays" like SERPICO, based off the film of the same name.

His friends consist of Dirk(Mason Gamble), his chapel-partner; Mr. Bloom(Bill Murray in a quiet, understated breakthrough performance), the owner of a metal/construction-plant; Bert Fischer(Seymour Cassel), his father; and his love, "Miss Cross"(the beautiful Olivia Williams)...

It ain't that easy, unfortunately. For someone who has done it all, Max doesn't have it all. He's only Dirk's friend because he likes his mother, he likes Mr. Bloom because he mistakenly thinks Bloom thinks the same way he does, him and his father are close but are more like friends and Mrs. Cross doesn't want to be romanitcally involved with Max because Max is a minor, for the love of God. On top of all of this, his fellow peers can't stand him as he ruthlessly and sadistically uses them to achieve his fame and steer his ship, the school he calls Rushmore Academy.

RUSHMORE is beautifully written by Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson, well-acted, expertly directed and at times, slightly touching.

Bill Murray turns in an expert-performance and Jason Schwartzman is equally good. The fantasically set-up cinematography is a thing of beauty, a work of art, almost as if it came out of a master-director's playbook. The art-direction is like something out of a science-book from the sixties complete with the generic-yearbook font. And it all comes together to form a mosaic, ironically like one of Max's stage-plays.

The funny thing about it is, this seems to be a surreal tale of kids and adults battling in a scholastic enviornment, but it's really about a group of mature adults, getting through their respective lives, discovering who they are, growing up to be the adults they've longed to be. It could be taking place in the real world in a business office, a tale set in an ancient society, or a small town in America, but it doesn't. The performers aren't supposed to play the characters they're assigned, yet like a Max Fischer Production, here they are. The setting is at a school, and the storyline remains the same, yet the characters are changed slightly...you can interpret this film many ways.

The Criterion Collection DVD is one of the best I have ever seen. Great sound and picture and the extras! My, oh my! You get a featurette on the making of the film, Charlie Rose interviews Wes Anderson and Bill Murray, a great audio-commentary track by the filmmakers and actor, Schwartzman, an amusing set of stage-plays based on OUT OF SIGHT, ARMAGEDDON, and THE TRUMAN SHOW that will crack you up if you've seen all three films, cast auditions, storyboards, posters...this is a great DVD, just like the film.

Go to Rushmore. You won't be disappointed. One of the best films of 1999.

Rating:
Summary: best movie ever man
Review: s-i-g-h this is one of my 10 favorite films ever; and its quite possibly one of Bill Murray's best performances. This is a quiet film about a kid who really loves his school, really. The actress who plays the love interest (she was also Bruce Willis' wife in the 6th sense) just glows in the film. The regular cast of characters from all of the films are here and in force.

You cant dislike this film.

Rating:
Summary: Ferris Bueller's Day Off As An Art Film...
Review: RUSHMORE constitutes a piece of celluloid which is amply demonstrative of what can be achieved when skilled construction is crossed with sublime imagination; what you get is a very addictive work, the repetitive viewings seeming to defy monotony and instead inspire further investigation.

Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson received one hell of a gift when their respective muses colluded on this remarkable screenplay, a script so worthy of praise and adulation one has to wonder if the Devil itself helped them with it. The movie recites the tale of Max Fischer, something of a paradox- on the one hand, he is a wunderkind writer and an extremely gregarious lad whose social skills border on the level of a savant, while on the opposite extremity he is an underachieving, academic failure who has no time to ponder the theorems and axioms of Euclidean geometry. He's a dreamer, he's caught up in his role as resident playwright at Rushmore, he is the founder of just about all the cool clubs (and the not-so-cool ones as well), and he basks in all the saturating glory afforded him by his private-school compatriots...why bother himself with dry, insipid textbooks?

Well, for one thing, he's on the verge of being kicked out of his beloved Rushmore, a concept he finds beyond anathema. But try as he might, he just can't get into the swing of things. And another complication is added to his already challenged world: Miss Rosemary Cross, the institution's new pedagogue. An infatuation with the bursting energy of a quasar builds up inside his psyche, he becomes obsessed by this crush; but, as fate would have it- as fate always has it- Cross is not the least bit interested in crossing the anachronistic line which separates them.

Enter Herman J. Blume, wealthy industrialist and Rushmore benefactor. Played with understated and sardonic elegance by expert-of-the-everyman-character and erstwhile member of the Saturday Night Live repertory Bill Murray, Blume develops a paternal bond with Fischer, finding in him a sharp contrast with his twin sons, a pair of progeny both crude in demeanor and lacking in high-level cognitive abilities. He wishes Fischer was the product of his loins instead of what he's been cursed with, and he makes overtures to the boy by hanging with him and aiding him when necessary.

A nasty thing then develops: Blume falls for Cross. Talk about a tempest. To say Fischer was hurt is to call the Big Bang a Little Pop. By this time, the Rushmore student's shenanigans succeed in getting him expelled to a public school; having Blume now on Cross's tail in addition to such an indignity sends him over the edge, and a give-and-take battle erupts between the two, with Max siccing angry bees on his adversary and Herman crushing the kid's bicycle under his vehicle's tires. Poor Miss Cross is caught in the crossfire, and becomes exasperated with the both of them. But Fischer has one more play in him, and as he begins to assimilate the damage that he's done and received, he uses it to find some semblance of sanity not only for himself but for Herman and Rosemary.

RUSHMORE is a complex tapestry of technique, make no mistake about it. The filmmaking protocols and paradigms at work are quite subtle for the most part, yet are discernible for those willing to invest even a cursory analysis; it is an entire semester's worth at Emerson or UCLA, covering even the most ambitious syllabus. Director Anderson is a genius at detail and execution, and he knows about pace- above all, he keeps things moving, and in fun, interesting ways. Great example is when Max requests seed money from Blume for a project; watch as the dialogue's linear course is broken up into several successive scene changes, thus granting the illusion of swift shifting through the story's arc. Each scene's vector is calculated with meticulous grace, the mathematics at work making sure that the sequences last as long as they need to (of course, this is not to suggest that such calculation is consciously going on in the mind of the director; but music is, as they say, just a prettier way of expressing number manipulation, and who can argue that a great movie is like a great song?). Every subplot- and there really aren't any subplots in a sense, more like subconcepts- is treated appropriately and amplifies the value of the alpha plot. As such, this is one of the best-edited works to come along in quite some time; it is worthy to note that it is probably due to the seminal reach of early-MTV videos, making proper use of the better trappings of that particular- and perhaps dubious- art form (good example: the yearbook-like montage of Fischer's clubs).

Anderson doesn't stop there. No, for his camera moves are slick and fluid when not static (when they are static, the above-mentioned quick-cut editing adds the style). And his direction is as masterful as it is practical; although it cannot be stated with surety, it definitely seems as if he's a minimalist when it comes to giving orders, preferring instead to allow the thespians under his tutelage broad range of interpretation...given the nature of the material, it is probably a sagacious choice, since it is best for actors to draw upon their own experiences when it comes to slice-of-life artistic endeavors. The soundtrack is almost a character in its own right, and is comprised of a song collection which not only captures the mood of the varied moments throughout the film with sharp accuracy but is catchy and offbeat; the excellent score was done by former head Devo Mark Mothersbaugh, the Pepsi to Danny Elfman's Coke.

RUSHMORE comes highly recommended. More could be said about it, but the thousand-word limit has almost been reached. If you've ever had a debilitating crush on the opposite sex, you'll enjoy it's nuances...

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: This is a great flick. Everything about it is good. If you think you'll hate this flick, then you've got to see it for the scene where Bill Murry does a cannon-ball into a swimming pool at his sons birthday party. It was a melancholy cannon-ball, summing up all the emotion of a father who realizes that his own son is a pathetic waste of skin.

to summarize, get it for the cannon-ball, watch it for the qualiity film making.