Director Wes Anderson's second feature film is really the one that established him as an off-center auteur, it is also the movie that introduced audiences to Jason Schwartzman (thank you) and launched Bill Murray's second career as a quirky character actor. Schwartzman plays Max Fischer a 15-year old scholarship student at the prestigious Rushmore private school (filmed in part at St. Mark's School of Texas the prep school director Anderson once attended) who spends too much time starting and presiding over extra-circular clubs and not enough time on his studies (Fischer is at the school because he is considered a playwriting prodigy). Max is further distracted from his studies when he develops a strong crush on Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams) a recent widow and new teacher at the school. Max also develops an unlikely friendship with Herman Blume (Bill Murray) a wealthy industrialist and benefactor of the school whose twin sons hate Max. Eventually Herman too develops feelings for Ms. Cross and the two begin an affair, when Max finds out about it he and Blume begin a feud that ratchets up to amusing levels of ridiculousness, but eventually they reconcile.
This film is made less by the plot and more by the assortment of quirky characters, the visual style, and its 'over-aching juvenile fantasy sensibility'. Watching this movie is the first time I think I truly got what Anderson was going for, when I watched The Royal Tenenbaums I didn't quite get it, but Rushmore I sort of loved. This is a story about the odd quirky (there's that word again) kid in high school, as that odd quirky kid might tell it. It's not for everyone but if you click with the movies frequency its a joy to behold.. ***1/2
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