Max Fischer - Jason Schwartzman (son of Talia Shire)
Herman Blume - Bill Murray
Rosemary Cross - Olivia Williams (Postman, but we’ll forgive her)
Dirk - Mason Gamble (Dennis the Menace)

One of the disadvantages of living in a smaller market is that some of the limited release movies don't make it here until near the end of their cinematic run.  I usually try to avoid reading other reviews, or listening to people's comments, as much as I can until I've seen the movie.  Sometimes, though, it's unavoidable, but I try not to let it taint my view of the film.  Rushmore had been receiving critical acclaim since it's release last Christmas, and then its wider release two weeks ago, so I was curious about it.  Then I saw the preview, and though it looked interesting, so I sat back, and anxiously awaited its arrival here.

Now, having seen it, I have to inquire of those who rated it high: Can someone explain this movie to me?  I am speechless and confused.  I had a deer-in-headlights look when leaving the theater.

From the previews, I deduced that this was going to be a dark comedy about love, revenge and the uncomfortable nature of teen angst from a prep school perspective.  Well, there were attempts at humor, a constantly running theme of love, some moments of revenge, but none of them were ever made interesting at all.  There are glimpses of an interesting story here.

Max Fischer is indeed a fascinating person, so involved in school activities that his grades are faltering. He is a bit of a manipulator, and organizer, who sometimes creates his own fantasy world to live in.  He develops a crush on an elementary teacher (Williams), and strikes up a friendship with rich, eccentric alumnus Herman Blume (Murray).  Fischer is 15, and obviously too young for the teacher, but still in love with her, and becomes angered when Blume falls for her as well.  Revenge ensues, hilarity does not.

My plot description is a lot more interesting than the story actually is.  Director Wes Anderson (of the wonderful Bottle Rocket) has made a movie about situations instead of a cohesive plot.  In order for this line of thinking to work though, it must either:
a) Have interesting characters.
There are none here.  There were details and plotlines hinted at, which, if delved upon, would've made them more interesting.

OR

b) Have a similar theme running through it (i.e. Primary Colors).
There is no consistency to this movie, there are plotlines begun, ended, picked up, toyed with, and dropped again.

With neither of these existent, I was immensely bored. There were flashes of brilliance; Fischer’s plays, tackling Serpico, gang violence, and Vietnam.  The revenge plots between Schwartzman and Murray were mildly humorous, but in all, this looked like a movie searching for an identity in its quirkiness.  It tries to hard to be hip, edgy, and dark, never focusing itself on being entertaining in the process.

The actors do the best with what they’re given, but it's like trying to build a paper airplane with wet tissue, it just keeps falling apart no matter how hard you try.
When a movie leaves me speechless, it's usually because I cannot come up with the words to do it justice, to describe what a wonder piece of filmmaking it is.  Here, my words and thoughts may seem disjointed, but it's only because I am speechless from disappointment, and boredom, at what a bad movie I thought this was.  Not Godzilla/Avengers/Armageddon bad, but definitely not deserving of all the hype given, nor up to par of Anderson's previous work.  Skip this one, unless you want to try and figure it out, and then explain it to me. ($1/2 of $$$$)