Rushmore (1998)
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Rushmore Movie Review
Rushmore is a 1998 teen drama film directed by Wes Anderson and starring Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray. It’s a very bad, off-putting movie.
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“I saved Latin. What did you ever do?“
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Max, a student at Rushmore Academy, excels at everything except academics. He meets and falls in love with a teacher, Mrs. Cross, but later discovers that his mentor is also in love with her. This is lauded as among the finest Wes Anderson movies, but I ended up even hating this one as well, so my hatred for Anderson’s opus is apparently all-encompassing.
Nothing in this film appealed to me in the slightest. The story is mediocre and almost non-existent. It’s the typical coming-of-age flick, but worse than most because it felt overly soapy in its elements and romances. None of the romantic elements worked whatsoever.
Worst of all, Max is one of the most annoying protagonists in any film out there. I despised him throughout what constituted a very long time watching the movie. Yes, the runtime is short, but the movie is so annoying that I felt as if I had been watching a movie that is at least double its length. Jason Schwartzman is terrible, very unappealing in every aspect and the character being at the center of the picture ruined any possible enjoyment that it could have had.
Other characters don’t fare much better and even Bill Murray is saddled with a very unfortunate, badly written role. It’s a shame that this once great actor has decided to put all of his attention throughout the remainder of his life on Anderson movies. It’s frustrating watching an actor ruin his career like that.
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Rushmore is only okay in the technical aspects not being as loudly “idiosyncratic and original and weird” as most Anderson movies would be in the future. This is the main strength of this film – it is at least somewhat restrained in strangeness. However, that did not help matters all that much having in mind that the storyline is very poor and the characterization and dialogue frustratingly annoying. It says a lot when you can’t find anything legitimately enjoyable in a big, renowned movie. I must be going crazy when most people are clamoring for this guy except for me.
