FauxNixon

In many ways this was the true mainstream break-through for Wes Anderson as a director, though the film maintained that independent spirit that his earlier movie Bottle Rocket made such great usage of. Jason Schwartzman stars as Max Fischer, a character of enormous depth and knowledge, perpetually a creator of clubs and a masterer of hobbies, but also a terrible student at his private school, where he is content to remain for as long as possible.

When Max meets Herman Blume (Bill Murray) a wealthy speaker at the school who implores students to “take down” the rich students, Max begins a mature friendship with him, which contrasts incredibly with Blume’s biological children, also students at Rushmore, but almost adult brats. Max attempts to court the second-grade teacher at his school, Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams), who finds it difficult to keep her relationship with Max in the proper context and within acceptable limits due to his age. When Blume begins to try to court Rosemary also, Max and Herman begin a war of pettiness.

The rich characters that always appear in Wes Anderson’s movies are present here as well and much time is spent on the evolution and maturing nature of Max Fischer, the self-hating pessimistic misery of Herman Blume, and the middle-of-the-road melancholy of Rosemary Cross and how the various characters and their conflicts end up making each of the three different and better for having endured.  According to the IMDb the line in the movie, “Yeah, I was in the shit,” was voted #56 by Premiere’s 2007 “The 100 Greatest Movie Lines” list.