Amazing that I’d never seen this. It’s a cracking little film, but one that slips a little under the radar being a little overshadowed by the star-heavy The Royal Tenenbaums. It is a very Wes Anderson film; lots of great screen compositions, beautiful colours, lots of stills with graphics, a phenomenal soundtrack, quirky characters doing pretty incredible (and frankly uncredible) things in between smoking a lot and riffing some impossible-to-extemporise dialogue.
It is about relationships and the lengths people will go to in order to get their own way. And in Rushmore that familiar Anderson territory is better explored than he perhaps manages anywhere else. Jason Schwartzman’s Max Fischer is a scholarship student at the prestigious Rushmore Academy who hides his modest background (his father, played by Seymour Cassel, is a barber) and will do anything to remain at the school. He develops a friendship with a wealthy but unhappy middle-aged man Herman Blume (Bill Murray) and an infatuation with a teacher (Miss Cross, played by Olivia Williams). Inevitably, they develop a relationship between them causing conflict and a reappraisal of priorities.
Where most of Anderson’s films are a triumph of style over substance- not necessarily a criticism of course- this one has a little more depth. I particularly like the Oedipal themes which recur, Max has father-figure relationships with his own father (well, duh!), Herman Blume, Dr Guggenheim (Brian Cox, an underrated actor) and even is the father-figure for Dirk Calloway- I don’t know what it’s called in the US but here he’d be called Max’s fag. The way in which the same relationship is shown with differing dynamics is really quite nicely done. This also gives scope for some great characters and some really enjoyable performances, most especially by Bill Murray: Rushmore is a total gift for Bill. Probably his best ever role. Have I already said that once? Anyway, it bears repetition; for it is.
