Originally posted by Macho MantisYou mean the Wes Anderson film?
Why do people like Rushmore?
I can't fully explain why I like it. The first time I saw it I had no idea how to evaluate it as a film, but I knew that for some reason, I liked it. I rewatched it recently. It's a perfect character portrait of a young man, a misfit with a lot of passion and talent but very little self-awareness of his own (glaring) faults. Schwartzman's performance is great. The character was written to be like a 'young Mick Jagger', but when he saw Schwartzman's take, Anderson decided to go with him instead, and I think he really nails a completely unique character in the world of film. Unlike Anderson's later films, the film is not entirely taken over by a distinct visual style. Instead, it is a subtle and strange study of broken people. The friendship between Schwartzman's character and Bill Murray's character is unique: they are equals despite their age difference. They are both lost, showing that people can lose their track early in their life, despite their talents (Murray is clearly a skilled businessman, but his lack of ambition and despondency means he is left in a dead-end life with shitty kids and an uncaring wife). Is there one large message to this film? No, it's a patchwork of human emotions, seemingly haphazardly placed alongside each other, but hey, that's what life's like. It's a portrait of class relations in the US, an examination of not fitting in and finding a place for your own, a lesson in not fixating on the person you believe yourself to love, and a call for a more honest, self-aware era of humanity (a common aspect of Anderson's work). The metamodernist approach in this film shows us the first time Anderson really found his legs, but is neatly tempered with a slightly more minimalist angle. Overall, to me, Rushmore is no masterpiece, but is its own flawed work of genius, and possibly my favourite Wes Anderson film. 8/10.