Rushmore

Plot synopsis:
Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) is a precocious and eccentric 15-year-old attending the prestigious boy's school Rushmore Academy. Max is the president, and in some cases founder, of numerous extracurricular clubs and organizations within the school, and is infinitely more devoted to these activities than he is to his regular schoolwork, eventually causing him to be placed on "sudden death academic probation" by Rushmore's headmaster Dr. Guggenheim (Brian Cox). Despite the warning that one more failed class will result in expulsion, Max is determined to stay at Rushmore for as long as possible.Max's widowed father Bert (Seymour Cassel) is a blue-collar barber and a wise, loving father to Max, his only child. Max's mother Eloise died of cancer when Max was seven. The contrast of Max's middle-class background with the wealthy and privileged lives of most Rushmore students feeds Max's determination to make a name for himself. Max is a scholarship student, accepted to Rushmore on the strength of a one-act play he had written in second grade. During a chapel assembly, Max is deeply impressed with a brief speech delivered by local industrialist Herman Blume (Bill Murray), who seems to be addressing the non-wealthy underdogs like Max, reminding them that the rich kids "can't buy backbone." Though Blume, in reality, is a glum and disillusioned man despite his fortune, he is struck by Max's enthusiasm and confidence when the two meet after the assembly.After finding an intriguing quote handwritten in the library book he is reading, Max attempts to track down the person responsible. The search leads him to Ms. Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams), Rushmore's new first grade teacher. Max develops an instant crush on her, and he introduces himself one afternoon when the two are alone on the bleachers. Ms. Cross, while slightly startled by Max's forward nature, is impressed by his intellect, and they strike up a conversation, during which Ms. Cross expresses displeasure at the school's decision to cancel the Latin program. Max, despite having tried to get Latin cancelled for years, switches courses immediately in order to win Ms. Cross's favor, and circulates a school-wide petition to keep Latin in the curriculum before making a personal plea to the school executives. The effort not only restores Latin, but makes it a mandatory course. Ms. Cross and others, including Max's younger friend Dirk Calloway (Mason Gamble), are impressed by Max's tenacity, while other students, including the brash and aggressive Magnus Buchan (Stephen McCole), resent Max's ability to manipulate authority, seemingly on a whim, to the point where the entire school body is affected.Max also finds a friend in Herman Blume, whose numbskulled and bratty twin sons Ronny and Donny (Ronnie and Keith McCawley) are students at Rushmore. Max falsely tells Blume that his father is a neurosurgeon rather than a barber, still feeling the need to impress the successful industrialist. Max is soon a regular visitor at Blume's plant. Blume is amazed at Max's cocksure attitude and dedication to goals, while he himself is in a failing marriage and a downward spiral.Max continues to pursue Ms. Cross, visiting her classroom after school. He learns that her late husband was a former Rushmore student, which directly influenced her decision to teach there after his death the previous year. Seeing that Ms. Cross has an interest in marine life, due to the fish tanks in her classroom and the library book by Jacques Cousteau they had both read, Max approaches Blume for $35,000 to build an aquarium at Rushmore. Though Max had not told anyone else, including Dr. Guggenheim, about the project, Blume indulges him with a check for $2500.Ms. Cross soon becomes concerned about Max's clear feelings for her, and attempts to make it clear that a romantic relationship will never happen between them. Max,though disappointed, appears to get the message.However, when Max's next play has its opening night at Rushmore, he is openly annoyed to see that Ms. Cross brought along a male friend, Dr. Peter Flynn (Luke Wison), as a guest. Blume, also in attendance, is introduced to Ms. Cross, and the four of them go out to dinner. Blume notices Max's irritation at Dr. Flynn's presence, and unwisely buys Max alcohol, which worsens his behavior. Max insults Dr. Flynn for coming along uninvited, and he admits to Ms. Cross that he is in love with her.A few days after the incident, Blume visits Ms. Cross at Rushmore to deliver an apology letter from Max, to whom she had not spoken to since. Blume develops an infatuation with Ms. Cross, and later tries to casually dissuade Max from continuing to pursue her. Max and Ms. Cross patch up their friendship nonetheless.When Max finally attempts to break ground on the aquarium project, for which he had never sought the school's approval, he is officially expelled from Rushmore. Max is crushed, but changes neither his attitude nor habits when he begins attending a local public school, Grover Cleveland High. He continues to engage in and start up multiple extracurriculars, though the other students don't show interest. Classmate Margaret Yang (Sara Tanaka) attempts to befriend Max, only to be ignored.Blume and Ms. Cross begin a secret relationship, which they take care to hide from Max, with whom they still spend time as a trio. Though Blume is married, he has long suspected his wife of infidelity, and feels something new and liberating with Ms. Cross.Max still visits the Rushmore campus on occasion, feeling angry and lost about his expulsion from the main focus of his life. Magnus Buchan taunts Max, accusing him of only being friends with Dirk Calloway because of Dirk's beautiful mother (Connie Nielsen). Max crassly tells Magnus that half the reason he was expelled was because he got a handjob from Mrs. Calloway in the back of her car. Magnus is unconvinced, but the rumor spreads, soon reaching Dirk, who becomes furious with Max. Dirk, aware of the secret relationship between Ms. Cross and Blume, ousts the affair to Max in hopes of hurting him.Max loses all sense, and confronts Blume about the affair. Blume admits to being in love with Ms. Cross but that neither of them wished to hurt Max's feelings. Max is unmoved, and promptly rats Blume out to Mrs. Blume (Kim Terry), who files for divorce, resulting in Blume taking up indefinite residence in a hotel. Max sneaks in, disguised as a waiter, and infests Blume's hotel suite with bees.Knowing Max is responsible for telling his wife about the affair and for the bee incident, Blume runs over Max's bicycle with his car. Max, in turn, cuts Blume's brakes, for which Blume has Max arrested. After being bailed out by his father, Max attempts to get Ms. Cross fired from Rushmore by showing Dr. Guggenheim photos of her and Blume together, but finds out she had already resigned. Max visits her in her classroom as she is packing up, and she angrily asks him to leave. Max gives up the revenge game and his former tenacity drains away. He stops attending school and begins working in his father's barbershop.Near Christmastime, Dirk stops by the barbershop to visit Max and make amends. He presents Max with a personalized Swiss Army Knife, commemorating his legacy at Rushmore. Dirk also brings the news that Dr. Guggenheim is in the hospital after suffering a stroke, and that Max should visit him. Max does so, and Dr. Guggenheim's rage towards Max results in him speaking for the first time since the stroke. Blume was visiting as well, and he and Max patch up their friendship. Blume, who is an outward mess, tells Max that Ms. Cross had ended the relationship. This news sparks Max's passion for extracurriculars again, and he goes back to Grover Cleveland High with renewed vigor. He finally accepts friendship from the kindhearted Margaret Yang, and casts her in his latest play.Max makes an irrational final attempt to romance Ms. Cross by pretending to have been hit by a car and climbing through her bedroom window with fake blood on his face. She sees through the ruse, but answers his questions about why she broke up with Blume. Ms. Cross says she ended the relationship because Blume was married, self-loathing, and petty enough to destroy Max's bicycle. Max tells her Blume's theory: that Ms. Cross is still in love with her late husband, Edward Applebee. Max leaves through the window, finally accepting that he will never win Ms. Cross.After apologizing to Dirk and Margaret Yang for his poor behavior, Max puts together a new play, partially inspired by the Vietnam War, of which Blume is a veteran. He casts Margaret, Dirk, and surprisingly Magnus, in leading roles alongside himself, and invites Ms. Cross and Blume to the premiere, assuring that they are seated beside each other. He also invited Dr. Peter Flynn as a means of atonement for past behavior. Max dedicates the play in part to "Edward Applebee-a friend of a friend." The play is a huge success, and Max, Blume, Ms. Cross, Margaret, and and incredibly proud Bert congregate at the party afterward.Blume and Ms. Cross consider giving their relationship another try, while Max and Margaret Yang become closer. Blume asks Margaret for a dance, leaving Ms. Cross and Max alone. Max signals the DJ, who begins to play The Faces' "Ooh La La" as Max and Ms. Cross approach the dance floor together.

Tags: cult, comedy, psychedelic, romantic, clever

Review:
Wes Anderson reaches cinematic excellence with Rushmore, a story about Max Fischer a young man who's trying to find his own place in the world.
Wes Anderson's Rushmore is a movie full of everything that modern day cinematic crap movies lack; dry humor, unique writing, music that makes a scene unforgettable, and real heart.
I feel as though Rushmore is cinematic excellence, Max Fischer is the perfectly flawed yet absolutely brilliant character who tries to find his place in the world, whether it's by engrossing himself in extracurricular activities or pretending he's the son of a neurosurgeon.
Wes Anderson picks the perfect music for each scene, especially for the heartbreaking scene at the end when Miss Cross and Max are dancing to the Faces "Ooh la la." But, what's most brilliant about Rushmore is how it makes you feel; pessimistic yet hopeful, sad yet joyful, confused yet clear-minded.
To quote Cousteau, as Miss Cross did in the Diving for Sunken Treasure book, "When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life he has no right to keep it to himself," and I'm glad that Wes Anderson created such an extraordinary movie and shared it with us all..
Rushmore was the first Wes Anderson film I saw, and I didn't think much of it the first time.
I thought Bottle Rocket wore its rookie status on its sleeve; I thought Rushmore was flawed; and I thought Tenenbaums finally showed that Anderson had honed his craft and he would start making great films.
I found the heart in Anderson's film.If you felt Rushmore was not all it could have been the first time you saw it, please give it another chance.
Granted, he brings to the movie his usual subtle quirkiness, but that humor isn't out of line with the general mood of the film.
The idea of the movie doesn't come off sounding like a very captivating plot: high school geek and middle-aged millionaire fall in love with the same first grade teacher.
I've watched this movie with people with a like-minded sense of humor and they always have a polarized reaction to it.
The genius of this film is how Anderson writes dialogue for his characters as adults but has kids saying the lines.
Although you could say this movie has a happy ending, if you have a smile at the end of the film, you're missing something.The characters are all disturbed on some level; Max, although giving the appearance of a mature young boy, really knows very little about life.
As I watched this film, I couldn't help but find brief and twisted similarities between Max Fischer's school days and that of Edward Albee of 'Who's Afraid of Virgina Woofe' fame.
At this point in time, this is Max's theatrical master piece, his 'Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolfe', if you will.Also, don't forget the name of Miss Cook's deceased Edward Appleby...Now, for those of you who have never been mistaken in reading the undertone of a movie, cast the first stone.
His frustrated friend (Herman Blume) tries to help but only succeeds in making things much, much worse and Max risks losing everything that is important to him.Having recently see The Life Aquatic etc I decided to step back to a film that I feel did Wes Anderson's humour and talent much more of a service and one in which he got the mix just right.
Special mention to Tanaka for being the sweetest redemption I've seen in many a film and pulls off the geeky but wonderful girl of many of our dreams.Overall this is a good film but not one that will appeal to the majority of viewers or be the one to win over those that just don't like Wes Anderson's films.
Plus, it has been reviewed over 500 times on this site alone.One important aspect of this film, which is overlooked in practically every online review that I've read, is Wes Anderson's nod to the world of J.D. Salinger.
The whole Ivy League (or whatever second level's called over there) system is debunked: whereas Rushmore will accept any trash as long as they're white, Max's multi-racial public school seems a much more vital place.What is great about this film is not these things, but its understanding of and sympathy for adolescent experience.
This actually makes his pain even more moving, and why he can sympathise with Hermann throughout on an emotional level, even when he needs to hate him on a narrative one.Bill Murray gives the year's outstanding performance, which will hopefully be ignored at the Oscars - there is such depth to his angst, such humour to his self-lacerating millionaire, a self-made man who tragically sees himself as a loser.
The movie is a bit surrealistic and sour but the humor is deep and when you think back about this movie you can remember lots of it's jokes like how the main character, Marx Fischer used Latin in his latest play.
I think that Wes Anderson is a really special director and his style is of that kind that not nearly all of people like his movies.Mr. Hawkins.
Judging from the slew of 10's, this movie has endeared itself to a great many viewers, but for me it was a misfired dark 'comedy' mired in quirky forced situations and unrealistic characters and dialogue.
If you like plot, characters that make any sense at all and humor, this movie is not for you.
These people constitute about .01% of the population; unfortunately, for reason I can't even imagine, their gushing about this waste-of-celluloid may make it appear to be one of those sleeper movies (like Office Space) that bombed miserably at the box office.This film bombed for a reason-- IT'S TERRIBLE!
I rarely turn off a movie before the ending, but this is one of those rare times that I and my wife just couldn't take it anymore (we shut it off about 3/4's through).Unless you have a fascination with how oddball people's minds work, don't watch this film.
This movie is about a 15 year old kid named Max in a private prep school called 'Rushmore' who gets a crush on an attractive 1st grade teacher.
This is the first time in my life I have EVER rented a film, tried to watch it, and got halfway and just returned the dam thing cause it was SO BAD!!
The loose plot line and dweeby dialog (let me tell you no real high school student talks like that) made me wish for interactive video so that I could yell at these people to get a life.
I would like to start out by saying I am a HUGE Bill Murray fan, I never miss any of his movies.
There's a lot to like about "Rushmore" - enough that I got my hopes up that it would be a better film.
To me - and I know many, many people will disagree - Wes Anderson is another one of those directors whose movies I only like one of - I actually quite enjoyed The Life Aquatic (mostly because of Bill Murray and the quality stop-motion animation), but that's it.
But director Wes Anderson is known for his "quirkiness"; and what that actually means, inevitably it seems, is films about implausibly odd people with improbable amounts of money dead-panning their way through a series of deliberately flat jokes whose main purpose appears to be to assert the cleverness of the writer/director in daring to defy the normal conventions of narrative and character.
Even some who dislike his later movies like 'Rushmore', one of his earliest; but having seen many of his other films first, I can only see the same self-indulgent smugness of his other films.
Max (Jason Schwartzman), a fifteen-year-old misfit in glasses and braces, a terrible student-but enjoys many extracurricular activities at Rushmore Academy.
It's also safe to say that Jason Schwartzman clearly tried all he possibly good so that the Max character rubs the audience the right way.
I guess I lack the proper eccentricities to enjoy such a picture.Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams, and Brian Cox. Directed by: Wes Anderson..
The film is about a kid named Max(Jason Schwartzman), a student who spends most of his time with his extracurricular activities and not enough time with his school work.
As a matter of fact, watching Elections and the Virgin Suicide (yet another disappointment, just not as bad as Rushmore) last week enforced the feeling that this movie could have gone elsewhere..
It stands as their second prodigy-child, a brilliant masterpiece that paves the way for The Royal Tenenbaums.Rushmore is the story of Max Fischer, a nerdy, yet courageous, fifteen-year-old genius with unstoppable determination.
Consequently, the story takes a dive into an unwieldy love triangle that turns into a superfluous war and ironically ends with a play of the Vietnam War.Max's greatest virtuosity is staging elaborate high school plays which add another dimension to the film as they are presented to the viewer randomly.
The kid is only seventeen and plays his first movie with such confidence and authenticity that even at times outshines a veteran like Murray.
Rich boy (or in this case, not-rich prep school) protagonists, his frequent use of center composed framing, and quirky consistent costumes get added to the kooky characters and generally great selection of popular music for the scenes.While the direction is strong, the story has a few problems going on, story arcs fade in and out and it seems at time as though the movie should be over but it continues going on.
While I see room for improvement, Rushmore is a fine quirky film that I can recommend to those who like quirky comedies.
However on second viewing I realized it's very good and smart, and the dry humor is just Wes Anderson's style - something Bill Murray plays into perfectly.Murray is the rich businessman who befriends a smart 15-year-old named Max, both of whom fall for the same woman, a teacher at Max's school.
As I usually love irreverent, iconoclastic comedies, and the reviews I had read hailed this movie as such, I was expecting to like "Rushmore".
(In my mind, the screenwriters of "Rushmore" used Max's writing, as well as his relationship to his dead mother, as a sort of half-baked character attribute that they never put sufficient effort into fleshing out.)  Worst of all, Max never changes (for better, or for worse.)  He doesn't really learn anything or move anywhere, and he doesn't appreciably affect anyone's life.While I enjoyed Bill Murray's performance, I was continually distracted by the implausibility of a 45 year old man forming an intimate friendship with a high school student.
Written by Anderson and long time friend Owen Wilson, it is the screenplay of the movie which stands out.Max Fischer is the king of Rushmore.
What follows is how max tries to sort out his life.Brilliantly directed and written by Anderson, the movie is a little gem.
I've watched "Rushmore" with people who didn't even smile once, which seems impossible to me.Everyone knows what the film is about by now, so I won't go into any detail on that.
The romantic triangle here with Bill Murray's character Herman Blume, Jason Schwartzman as Max Fischer, and Olivia Williams as Rosemary Cross, a gorgeous young widow who teaches at the titular Rushmore Academy, is gloriously off-beat and improbable, but shockingly evocative of not only the feeling of being in love and the obsession that sometimes follows, but of the adolescent mindset and how it relates to adulthood, and how we probably never really leave it behind.
Now, I've seen the movie too many times to mention here without embarrassment and I'm pretty sure that we're not supposed to adore Max, accept all his actions (which involve sabotage, putting bees in Herman's hotel room, climbing up to Rosemary's window on a rainy night and pretending to have been hit by a car, and several other self-centered acts) as valid, or feel sorry for him.
Max Fischer ultimately feels human, and I'm sick of the need for audiences to have 'likable' characters (read: movie clichés, sometimes disguised, but still idealized).
It's got the dark humor, it's got the quirk which is still completely believable and real (people who complain about Wes Anderson being 'everything that's wrong with 'indie' film' are probably best left ignored or at least directed towards Diablo Cody, Mark Poirier, whoever wrote "Little Miss Sunshine", and all the rest of those hacks to see quirk for quirk's sake, and to an almost unbelievable extent), it's got the pathos, the dark, real emotion, and the phenomenal use of music.
The strange thing about this movie is that well it takes one back to their own time in high school and how they look peering in from the out-side wanting to be popular and liked and loved by the babes , also lets not forget about the crush everyone has on that one teacher .
The main character Max Fischer, played by the then fresh face, Jason Scwartzman is masterfully written in Andersons screenplay.
In the fall of 1997, my friend Bob Salari and I rented a movie called "Bottle Rocket", directed by "Rushmore" director Wes Anderson.
Many reviews I have read about this movie started with a comment to the effect of "Wes Anderson does it again!".
Laughably pretentious, one may think that this movie was apparently targeted towards the Brie and chardonnay crowd of moviegoers who need dweebish anti-heroes like Mad Max Fischer and Herman Blume to validate their own pathetic "Hey, I'm so tragically misunderstood and DIFFERENT than you but I've achieved success!" worldviews.The kid - Max Fischer (played by Jason Schwartzman) - was utterly unlikable (and I watched the movie several times before coming to this unshakable conclusion, just to make sure I wasn't unfairly being the high-school bully towards the class nerd).
Yes, I DID give it a fighting chance.If you want to see fantasy-type movies with unbelievable anti-hero youths who raise a ruckus with their surrounding environment, stick with films like Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Ferris (Matthew Broderick) was also a bit nerdish and perhaps annoying, and also quite "surreal" in the sense that hey, there just really AREN'T high school seniors like Ferris anywhere, and we all know that...
Bill Murray carries this movie with his great charm although he is given only a supporting role here.This movie touches the determined side of us.The part that keeps us going no matter what obstacles and limitations we have to deal with.For the underdog in us and the good things about that quality as well as the bad.The comedy is light and the love story is weak but the movie's  philosophical atmosphere will go wellwith an audience that likes movies that makes one think.Thus,the movie is only for that certain crowd.
And then when they did, I felt like I'd been robbed of 90 minutes of my life.And what is up with people saying that Bill Murray is so great in this movie?
This movie had a great soundtrack, interesting dialong and a good feel with the characters and their schemes.
I think a big problem is that you don't really care what happens to any of the characters (except Murray).Do we really care that Max Fisher's life revolves around his school?
Furthermore, I didn't believe that the main character was fifteen, didn't understand his obsession with joining every possible school club, didn't believe any tycoon, such as Bill Murray's character in the film, would identify with such a wierd brat.On the plus side the movie did have solid acting, particularly by Olivia Williams, as Rosemary Cross, and also by a very cute Sara Tanaka as Maragaret Yang.
Bill Murray gives us one of his 'gruff yet tender' performances that never fail to enchant, and the lovely Olivia Williams matches him emotion for emotion, but the film really belongs to young Jason Schwartzman, who all but steals every scene he's in.
I suppose if I hadn't heard anything about the movie, I may have liked it more, but as it turned out, I wasn't all that impressed.Granted, the film did have some very good moments.
I would have loved to see some more of the school plays put on by the lead character, Max Fischer.
I won't ruin what they were, but they were both highlights of the film.I also really liked the interaction between the two leads, Max and the character played by Bill Murray (I can't remember the characters full name, but his last name was Blume).
Eventually, Max's friend, Bill Murray's character, also falls in love with her.
I suppose that the point of the movie was simply to introduce these two quirky characters to the world, but with the expectations I had set, I would have liked more.So, am I recommending this film or not?
For a 90-minute movie to drag on into what seemed like 3 hours is not a good sign, and Rushmore ranks as one of the bigger disappointments of the year..
Some parts of the film, I totally forgot Murray was in the movie.A wonderful, classic comedy?
Herman is the father of two students at Rushmore and he really enjoys watching Max at work.
I don't know why people liked this movie.
please don't take my comment as a hate letter to Anderson, I really liked tenenbaums, and co-writer Wilson is one of my top movie-comedians but Rushmore is so bad, i'd rather watch pearl harbor again than this one.
This is a romantic comedy filtered through a creative mind.One of the most interesting features of the film is that Jason Schwartzman's character is totally unlikeable.
Max is one of the most unlikable and unappealing characters to be the focus of a film in a long time.
Like its central character, the film itself brims with arrogance and contempt and seems to condescend to its audience in a flashy way as if almost yelling "Look how great I am.".