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An excellent film that showed Wes Anderson's true talents of movie making.

Most people's favorite Wes Anderson is probably my least favorite. Not that funny and I found it to be irratating at times. Still liked it enough to recommend.

I think it's worth noting that I stopped watching this after 40minutes.

If I'm rating films out of 100, it gets 1%. Without Bill Murray, it gets 0%. The mere fact he's in it is worth 1%.

That is the very best I can say about this film. Based on the first 40 minutes of course...

6.6/10

I honestly don't know what to say about this movie. It was kind of like Napolian Dynamite in that it's about an oddball person in awkward situations and has a plot without much of a story. The difference is that the annoying stupidity of Dynamite is replaced by intelligence. The other difference is that Rushmore is actually funny.

This movie was practically my favorite movie just by the time I finished watching the trailer. So many people have ripped this style for their little indie sleeper hits by now that people don't realize how new it was at the time. I had never, ever seen this brand of humor at the time in anything. I feel sorry for the people who don't get it, because it's relentlessly hilarious, from Max Fischer's barrage of see-through, faux-hard-ass dialogue to the deathly serious other Rushmore students to the pathetically hopeless adults. Every line and every performance is comedy gold, and in addition, it has some of the saddest desperation ever seen on screen, especially from Bill Murray at his arguable best. Plus the visuals and color scheme are completely unmatched by anything except Anderson's other work, and it happens to have the best soundtrack and the best score of all time. Haters can die.

+
Jason Schwartzman & Bill Murray give the performances of their careers... Irresistibly funny & sharp dialogue... Perfect soundtrack

-
A bit sidetracked in the middle act

Since Wes Anderson is my personal favorite director, I decided to rate all his movies in one entry.

Reviews of Ride with the Devil, Brokedown Palace, Pi and Rushmore.

Ride with the Devil (1999) - 5.8/10
Director - Ang Lee
Starring - Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich, Jeffrey Wright, Jewel, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Simon Baker, James Caviezel, Tom Wilkinson.

A watchable if sometimes over-reaching drama/action directed by Ang Lee. The Missouri/Kansas border is the setting for this Civil War drama where Jake Roedel (Tobey Maguire) joins the Bushwhackers, an independent group of renegades aligned with the Conderate Army. He is joined by Skeet Ulrich, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Simon Baker, and Jeffrey Wright, a slave who is actually fighting against the North. Throw in Jewel as Maguire's love interest, and you have a nice cast. The story is a bit muddled (for example more backstory on Wright's character would have been nice) but it's never a complete failure. An average film that could have been much more.

Brokedown Palace (1998) - 4.5/10
Director - Jonathan Kaplan
Starring - Clare Danes, Kate Beckinsale, Bill Pullman, Daniel Lapaine, Jacqueline Kim, Lou Diamond Phillips, Tom Amandes.

Aftre graduating high school, best friends Alice and Darlene (Clare Danes & Kate Beckinsale) decide to take a trip to Thailand. Darlene falls for a charming Australian (Daniel Lapaine) who convinces the girls to join him in Hong Kong. Without their knowledge he has hidden heroin in their luggage and the two girls are arrested at the airport. They end up in jail with a 33 year sentence.

The film is strikingly similar to Midnight Express just not nearly as effective. The script should have been tidied up a bit and I'm not sure Danes or Beckinsale were ready for roles like this.

Pi (1997) - 7/10
Director - Darren Aronofsky
Starring - Sean Gullette, Mark Margolis, Ben Shenkman, Pamela Hart, Stephen Pearlman.

Aronofsky's bare budget debut is an experimental film about a reclusive mathamatician (Sean Gullette) whose obsession with humbers fuels headaches and hallucinations. His work has drawn attention from Wall Street as well as a Hasidic group.

Shot in fabulously grainy (and blown out) black and white, the look definitely matches the films hallucinatory feel. It reminded me a lot of David Lynch's "Eraserhead" and is definitely not one for mainstream audiences. Of course Aronofsky would go on to direct the fabulous "Requiem For a Dream" but this is a fascinating start to his career.

Rushmore (1998) - 7.5/10
Director - Wes Anderson
Starring - Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams, Seymour Cassel, Brian Cox, Mason Gamble.

Jason Schwartzman plays Max Fischer, an obsessive self-assured nerd attending school at the prestigious Rushmore Academy. Unlike most of his classmates, Max is poor, which helps fuel his compulsive lies. He immerses himself into extracurricular activities ranging from fencing to astronomy to the Chess Club in order to gain attention. He also falls for a teacher (Olivia Williams) who is also fancied by business tycoon Mr. Blume (Bill Murray). The two form an odd friendship as well as becoming rivals. It's an eccentric, oddly moving coming-of-age story that helped put Wes Anderson in the spotlight. It's also his best film.

Rushmore (Directed by Wes Anderson, 1998)

Rushmore is one of those films that I never get bored of, the comedic timing, the balance between drama and comedy is perfect. Rushmore tells the tale of the angst ridden oddball Max Fischer and follows his strange endeavors and Foleys throughout the film. Rushmore has an extremely dry sense of humor and it works extraordinarily well with the films tone, Rushmore likes small absurdities (once Bill Murray gives Max's letter to Olivia Williams he then proceeds to flail his arms and run off into the distance, Williams fails to notice this odd behavior). It's rather dark, surprisingly dark for a comedy and yet it's not a dark movie, in fact it's quite the opposite, it's a film that makes you smile often.
The best moments embrace the situation, throwing caution to the wind and putting the characters and exchanges at the forefront and as a result, the lines are frequently hilarious and extremely memorable. Rushmore is that odd kid at your lunch table, you can prejudge him and hate him for being who he is or you can smile and welcome him into your heart.

Enduring Love was quite a surprise. I loved Changing Lanes, another film by Roger Michell but wasn't expecting to be so taken in by it. It's a slick Hitchcockian thriller with great performances and enough surprises to entertain fans of both Fatal Attraction and The Talented Mr. Ripley.

And of course I've seen Rushmore a million times. I'm seeing The Darjeeling Limited at three this afternoon. I'm excited, but after seeing Anderson's short prequel Hotel Chevalier I'm pretty sure I'm not in for the best comedy of all time. But here's hoping for a good time.