Rushmore

Rushmore is a film from 1988 whose director is Wes Anderson. This is a kind of funny drama about a kid named Max Fischer, who is is a precocious 15-year-old whose reason for living is his attendance at Rushmore, a private school.

Suddenly, Max is not doing well in any of his classes, and he's the king of extracurricular activities - from being in the beekeeping society to writing and producing plays, there's very little after school he doesn't do. His life begins to change, however, when he finds out he's on academic probation, and when he stumbles into love with Miss Cross, a pretty teacher of the elementary school at Rushmore. Added to the mix is his friendship with Herman Blume, wealthy industrialist and father of a twins who attend the school, and who also finds himself attracted to Miss Cross. Max's fate becomes inextricably tied to this odd love triangle, and how he sets about resolving it is the story in the film.

Something interesting I found about the way this film was done is the time transition in it. As the time passes in the story, the movie continually updates what time of year we are watching. So, in September and so on… The funny thing is that these words appear in a red pair of curtains that open into the next scene. I really liked it since there is a lot of theater related stuff going on in the film.

To be really honest, I didn’t like a lot this film. I don’t get what is about it that people love it so much (from what I’ve seen in the internet, and I was suggested to watch it as well). The film is okay, but it is not as great as is pictured. I hated the main character from the beginning, and I thought there were some very poor actors as well. I also wished the move went different in it’s story at the end.

Talking a little bit about sound, an outstanding use of it in this film was in an scene where the main character is telling a very important new to someone, but when he is saying it you hear the noise of an ambulance that is passing by. So you don’t really listen what he is saying, but you actually know what it is from the facts that you have seen in the movie already. I thought it was really cool because you don’t get to have the same information 2 times, the second time you just imply it.

Something else I should mention is about a slow motion scene at the end of the film. We see the main character in a party dancing with the girl he always wanted to be with, even thought he doesn’t get her. The image moves from a close up of them dancing to a wide shot of the whole party moving in slow motion, but with music in normal speed. I thought it was really weird, I felt like the music wasn’t really sync with the movement of the people. It was weird.

A last comment, I really hated the protagonist at the beginning. I think he was a jerk. But at the end my feelings for him became more positives.