Okay, here's the deal. I gotta be very honest with you folks. I have been holding out on this review for a long time. I've been known to procrastinate before, for whatever reason. I've been out of town for some of the biggies. I've been trapped in a Lake Tahoe resort, hiding from a shotgun wedding. There was one that I missed in a quest for the biggest largemouth bass in Carver Point's world-famous-all-over-Georgia Lake Carver. That one ended up in a lot of hurt feelings, two broken rods, and a lot of empty Coors Light cans.
This one, though, was a purposeful procrastination. I held off on reviewing Rushmore for you people, mainly 'cause I was gonna use my words to proudly announce Bill Murray's Academy Award nomination with it. But, as we've since found out, nobody that votes in the Academy felt the same way 'bout Brother Bill as most everyone else did, I come before you humbly now, to argue my point and also let you know a secret. Rushmore is a wonderful movie, out of almost nowhere, and you'd be making a terrible mistake if you wrote this thing off as just another "teen comedy."
Rushmore is the story of Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), a tenth-grader at the prestigious Rushmore Academy. To say Max is a little offbeat would be putting it mildly. Max has a hand in virtually every activity Rushmore offers, from the debate team to fencing to the drama club. In fact, Max has taken over the drama club, calling it "The Max Fischer Players," and directing a stage version of Serpico and a Vietnam drama with live explosions for special effects. His grades sputter a little, but he's leading the life he wants.
He also has an incredible crush on a first-grade teacher named Miss Cross (Olivia Williams). Max has even dreamed up a plan to win her heart. She likes fish, so Max has decided to build a huge aquarium on Rushmore's baseball field. Thankfully, one of Rushmore's biggest alumni, a steel baron named Mr. Blume (Bill Murray), sees in Max a lot of himself at the same tender age, and he agrees to help Max's cause. Max and Blume become good friends.
That is, until Blume meets the object of Max's affection. Blume falls in love with Miss Cross, too. This is the first shot in a war between Max and Blume, a battle of devious and dangerous practical jokes. Max pulls one on Blume; Blume returns the volley, upping the stakes a bit in the bargain. Max can only do the same. After all, all is fair in love and war.
It would've been so easy to make this a silly rip-off of a hundred different movies where the students fight the "establishment," but shake hands with director/co-writer Wes Anderson. He, along with co-scripter Owen Wilson, should be raised to Olympus for taking a tired premise and doing wonderful new things with it. Both are hereby nominated for the Williamson-Rodreguez Award for Best Re-Vamping of a Cliche. If you saw their earlier effort, Bottle Rocket, you know that this duo possesses an offbeat sense of humor that could rival the Farrellys and a twisted outlook on life that could make the Coens look almost normal. And, thankfully, they also get the idea that people can rise to the level of their expectations. A movie can be smart and witty and still be very funny on a slapstick level.
Schwartzman aids the cause by being one of the best finds in recent years. He comes form a bloodline that suggests talent (his mother is Talia Shire, his uncle is Francis Ford Coppola), but he has a unique style in his portrayal of Max. Sure, he's obnoxious and brainy and nerdish, but Schwartzman manages to keep the character sympathetic. I never thought you could be cold-hearted and dreamy-eyed all at once, but Schwartzman does it nicely, and, by doing so, he keeps the believability just as high. It makes the "teen" quotient a lot more realistic, especially when compared to the Tupperware worlds of "teen movies" like Varsity Blues.
And, while Max is the central focus here, Bill Murray cold-cocks us with the character Mr. Blume. No goofy voices, no cocky smart-assed self-assuredness, and, for the first time, no wild characterization. Blume is a lonely guy, a guy who floats to the bottom of his pool to get away from a party at his own house. He's like a grown-up and defeated Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate. He's jaded by what he's seen and done, and gets by with a sigh and a melancholy look on his face, resigned to whatever may come. When he does spark after meeting Miss Cross, he finds a reason to care, but he also finds himself battling with a younger version of himself in Max, trying to win the heart of a woman by fighting a childish war. Like Bill in every movie, he grabs your attention, but, unlike Bill, he does it by acting instead of clowning. I found it ironic that two of the best performances ignored by Academy voters were from comedic actors who decided to spin the wheel and get away from their usual role and do something with a more serious tone. Bill and Jim Carrey both did masterful work in their efforts, and got diddly for the attempt. One can only imagine the criticism, though, when they return to their comfort zone, and people will only say, "Same old stuff." Things like this can make a body say, "Why bother?" I only hope it doesn't in both cases.
There's also a point to be noticed here, whether the "establishment" wants to recognize it or not. It takes outsiders to come into Hollywood and make a movie with a "teen" theme and treat the teen characters like they have brains. Anderson and Wilson's script could easily be about two grown men fighting for their chosen love, and, truthfully, the script is just that. One of the men just happens to be a tenth-grader. Soapbox aside, I reiterate my long-time theory -- teenagers are just as sophisticated as so-called "adults." Give them credit, and they'll get it. Who do you think brought Monty Python, and for that matter, the original Saturday Night Live to the level of greatness? Young fans, that's who.
You'd be crazy to miss Rushmore, for the performances, for the script, or just for the laughs. And, so what if the boneheads in the Academy would rather vote with their pseudo-intellect than with their instincts? Because, if they have any sense of talent, they would have recognized Bill Murray's step into the world of "great actor."
Image copyright Touchstone Pictures.
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