Post by Pulpmariachi on Dec 21, 2005 13:37:51 GMT -5
Film Two in my Wes Marathon. There might be SPOILERS, but I'll try to stay clear of them.
What is Rushmore?
No, it's not the mountain in South Dakota (which is pretty much the only reason why people remember South Dakota). It's actually a private school in Nowhere, USA where Max Fischer (played excellently by Jason Schwartzman) attends.
Max is a student with many, many extra-curricular activities. So much so that he's focusing all his time on them instead of his actual academics. At the beginning of the film he is put on sudden-death academic probation. With his right-hand man Dirk Calloway, Fischer plans to fight the system. Until he falls in love with first grade teacher Miss Cross. Enlisting the help of the depressed Herman Blume (Bill Murray, who won an Independent Spirit Award for this film) he attempts to impress her by building an aquarium on the baseball diamond.
This is about the first thirty minutes of the film.
Wes Anderson gives it all for his second theatrical feature. He has developed the style that is very identifiable. We are given the WIDESCREEN presentation and the entire frame is taken up by characters or props or whatever, none of the space is misused. We get an awesome soundtrack from the British Invasion (complete with John Lennon, The Who, Cat Stevens...) that fits the mood perfectly, and just an array of interesting characters. Not counting the leads (Fischer, Calloway, Blume, and Cross) we're given the fed-up headmaster Dr. Guggenheim, the malicious Magnus Buncan, the love-struck Margaret Yang, the baber-mistaken-for-a-neurosurgeon Bert Fischer, and the Indian caretaker Mr. Littlejeans.
All of this in about 92 minutes of movie!
The film is definitley a character study. We feel sympathetic towards Fischer, anger, happiness, hope and loads of other things like that.
It also has one of the greatest endings, with a superb play put on in a high school gym (where else could you find a 12-year old wielding a flame thrower?) that is introduced as "There are some earplugs and safety goggles under your seats, please feel free to use them."
Sometimes, towards the middle, the film can kind of drag out a bit, but you'll never feel like anything is being rushed and for the most part stays the same pace throughout.
Brilliant performaces all around and great rewatcability. I didn't even notice Murray wearing Budweiser swimming trunks until my third or fourth viewing. And it is a film, like all of the following Anderson films, that needs to be watched more than once or twice. You just miss out on a lot watching it only once. After consecutive viewings you might find you like it better. You understand the characters even more, see more things in the background, and are able to grasp around it just a bit better.
It's a good film, though some people didn't like it I think. Oh well. So it goes.
***1/2 /****
What is Rushmore?
No, it's not the mountain in South Dakota (which is pretty much the only reason why people remember South Dakota). It's actually a private school in Nowhere, USA where Max Fischer (played excellently by Jason Schwartzman) attends.
Max is a student with many, many extra-curricular activities. So much so that he's focusing all his time on them instead of his actual academics. At the beginning of the film he is put on sudden-death academic probation. With his right-hand man Dirk Calloway, Fischer plans to fight the system. Until he falls in love with first grade teacher Miss Cross. Enlisting the help of the depressed Herman Blume (Bill Murray, who won an Independent Spirit Award for this film) he attempts to impress her by building an aquarium on the baseball diamond.
This is about the first thirty minutes of the film.
Wes Anderson gives it all for his second theatrical feature. He has developed the style that is very identifiable. We are given the WIDESCREEN presentation and the entire frame is taken up by characters or props or whatever, none of the space is misused. We get an awesome soundtrack from the British Invasion (complete with John Lennon, The Who, Cat Stevens...) that fits the mood perfectly, and just an array of interesting characters. Not counting the leads (Fischer, Calloway, Blume, and Cross) we're given the fed-up headmaster Dr. Guggenheim, the malicious Magnus Buncan, the love-struck Margaret Yang, the baber-mistaken-for-a-neurosurgeon Bert Fischer, and the Indian caretaker Mr. Littlejeans.
All of this in about 92 minutes of movie!
The film is definitley a character study. We feel sympathetic towards Fischer, anger, happiness, hope and loads of other things like that.
It also has one of the greatest endings, with a superb play put on in a high school gym (where else could you find a 12-year old wielding a flame thrower?) that is introduced as "There are some earplugs and safety goggles under your seats, please feel free to use them."
Sometimes, towards the middle, the film can kind of drag out a bit, but you'll never feel like anything is being rushed and for the most part stays the same pace throughout.
Brilliant performaces all around and great rewatcability. I didn't even notice Murray wearing Budweiser swimming trunks until my third or fourth viewing. And it is a film, like all of the following Anderson films, that needs to be watched more than once or twice. You just miss out on a lot watching it only once. After consecutive viewings you might find you like it better. You understand the characters even more, see more things in the background, and are able to grasp around it just a bit better.
It's a good film, though some people didn't like it I think. Oh well. So it goes.
***1/2 /****
