Rushmore DVD > Reviews > She's My Rushmore

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Great performances, interesting characters, another good movie from Wes
Disadvantages:	None

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Movie

This is another Wes Anderson movie that contains alot of his usual 'trademarks' found in his movies so far and I have to say, its one of my favourite Wes movies so far, next to Life Aquatic (which I've also written a review on, here on Ciao).

Its worth mentioning as an introduction as well about the movie itself, that this is another movie which Owen Wilson helped write. Both Owen and Wes wrote and were executive producers of this movie, though Owen doesn't really appear himself in the movie, so don't watch or buy it just to see him, as you'll be disappointed (though Owens brother and fellow actor Luke does make a fairly brief appearance in the movie as Miss Cross' old friend from Harvard). This movie dates from 1998 and was the follow up to 'Bottle Rocket', which both Wes and Owen also co-wrote.

I managed to buy the DVD cheap through Ebay for about £3 including P&P which was a right steal if you ask me! I think, like most of Wes' movies, this is another movie where some people might think its something its not, yup again its marketed as a comedy but it isn't a slapstick comedy with lots of visual jokes or anything, so be sure to be aware of the plot and what its like before getting it or you might be disappointed expecting it to be something its not, if this makes any sense...

Basically this movie is all about Max Fischer (played by Jason Schwartzman, who is also in Wes' new movie 'The Darjeeling Limited' which should be out in cinemas here soon), a student at the prestiguous private school Rushmore Academy. He's a pretty clever guy, for a 15 year old, in some respects, having started or having involvement in innumerous clubs and societies within the school but unfortunately his grades don't show that and if he doesn't improve soon, he may be expelled.

Everything changes, however, when he ends up falling for first grade teacher Miss Cross (played by Olivia Williams). However, he isn't the only one interested in her and he ends up competing for her attention and affection with his new friend, father of two fellow classmates and steel tycoon Mr. Blume (played by Bill Murray, who appears in alot of Wes' movies).

This may sound like a well worn out formula, school boy falls for a female teacher, so does someone else, what happens and so on but I was quite taken in by the portrayal of the character Max. I have to say, this might not be something that everyone can relate to or anything but he reminded me of someone I remember from school who was in many ways quite similar.

The movie, like I already said, features alot of the usual 'elements' of Wes' movies that work well in its favour I feel, there's the quite heavy sentimentality sort of theme or feeling present, the usual retro soundtrack with old 60s rock and roll songs. It again follows someone who is on a bit of a quest to 'find themselves' I think, well a couple of characters in this can be seen as doing that really, both Max and Mr. Blume, who was a bit of an intriguing character I thought... the friendship between the two I thought was interesting. This is another good performance from Bill Murray I feel.

I do find it somewhat difficult to review Wes' movies I must say, the movies themselves if you think about what they are about and try and explain in a fairly basic way, sound pretty boring and its hard to explain the comedy that is present too, its something I suppose that you have to watch and either you get it or you don't but I felt like I got this, if that makes any sense!

There are some inadvertently funny scenes in this movie, as with all of Wes' movies. There's one part within the movie where Max finds out that Mr. Blume has feelings for and is pursuing Miss Cross and angry at him, he hides a box of bees within his hotel room. However he finds out and retaliates by breaking a posession of Max's, to which he ends up saying 'well going to Vietnam will do that kind of thing to you' or something similar, since Blume had fought in the war - but really I don't think thats why he did what he did! infact the more scary thing is how Max retaliates again and does something very dangerous which gets him in trouble with the police... now when this happens, I did, I have to admit, laugh at it - it would be a bit of a spoiler to say what it is, I suppose but I did find that funny, in a quirky way. I'm not entirely sure why but I did.

The character development with Max is done pretty well and I think it can be hard to decide at times whether you feel sorry for him or whether you think that he gets what he deserves really... he's not exactly the nicest guy, thats for sure.

This movie is done in an interesting way too, its almost shown as a play, with it divided into different 'chapters' or months, every while these curtains will draw and the next month name will be shown, then the curtains will open again and the film continue, showing what happened this month... so I suppose its like a year in the life for this kind of misfit Max. Its also somewhat fitting, given that during the movie Max puts his own plays on at school, showing off to Miss Cross that he's capable of writing and putting on hit plays, though his bossy nature with some of the people who act in them doesn't impress them much.

There are some quite serious themes and aspects within this movie, as there often are present in Wes' movies but there's definately a good light hearted element to it too and there are a few scenes where, out of preposterousness (sp?), they can make you laugh or at least smile.

I think the main feeling I got from this movie, again a fairly usual trend for the director to use, is the sentimentality. Okay so Max is perhaps not the kind of guy that you would necessarily feel 100% sorry for but the way its made, you do develop an interest to find out what happens, will he get the girl? is that a good idea? will he manage to stay at Rushmore? what does the future hold for him and the school? and so on, those are the main questions that run through the movie.

I was a bit surprised to notice that not only is the teacher an English teacher (not teaching English but an English lady, played by an English actress, but there are some scenes that feature a fellow pupil at Rushmore academy called Magnus Buchan (played by Stephen McCole, whos been on Taggart, Rebus and Holby City on TV) , who's Scottish, though he plays a bully, not a very nice guy either... I wonder if there are many priviledged Scots who go to such private schools in the US? I wouldn't know! it would be nice to have had the Scottish character be a nice, friendly person lol I wouldn't want all Americans to think that Scots' like me are all bullies but there you go! and at one point I think Max talks to him presuming he's Irish but he gets corrected on that point... lol

The movie has quite a cult following and I read online that after it became popular with some, people started using one of the phrases from the movie when they had similar feelings for teachers at their school, they'd say 'she was my Rushmore'.

Classification

One thing to be aware of with this movie is that it is a 15 rate and that is mainly, if not entirely, because of the strong language present. There is alot of pretty graphic language used and because of that, I think the classification is just right, there isn't much violence or sex or nudity but the language is quite strong/graphic, so be aware of that.

DVD

The basic one disc DVD doesn't contain many extras, basically you only get scene selection and subtitles to choose from. The DVD is presented in widescreen format (2.35:1) and the subtitle choices are as follows - English/English for the hearing impaired/ French/Italian/Swedish/Norwegian/Danish/Finnish/Dutch.

Conclusion

Ove rall, I very much enjoyed watching this movie. Again, like his other movies, don't expect some really Hollwood-ised slapstick comedy, it isn't that kind of movie but it does have parts that should make you smile or laugh a fair bit, I reckon, at least I did.

If you like Wes' other movies then you should definately check this out, its another sentimental look at one mis-fit characters efforts to stay in control, I guess you could say. He certainly appears to do all he can to be seen as an adult but ultimately its his age and his lack of all round knowledge and experience, I guess you could say, that lets him down. Both Schwartzman and Murray pull off great performances and this has won a few awards, such as Best Film of the Year from Premiere Magazine, New York Daily News and Village Voice, according to the back of the DVD, so it is worth checking out, especially if you can get a copy on DVD as cheap as I did (and I do remember that there were quite a few DVDs on offer on Ebay at the time (a few weeks ago), also you could check Amazon Marketplace but it seems to be available fairly cheap, at least for the basic 1 DVD version. There may also be a more extensive version with more special/bonus features too).

Personally I didn't feel like it was as slow and boring as I've felt at times that perhaps one or two of Wes' other movies have been. I think it works well, with good performances from the main actors and as such, is definately worth checking out, especially if you can buy the DVD so cheap online, why not?!. I hope my review is helpful in making you decide whether or not you'd enjoy this movie, I try my best to explain my thoughts and opinions as honestly and best as I can.