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The Movie:
Rushmore
Starring Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray
Rated R
If you believe the advertising for "Rushmore", it's the best picture of the year and the funniest movie in ages. I think the best I could say about "Rushmore" was that it was the best movie I saw this week, a title it won by default. A comedy with a few
funny moments and a bit of fine comedy here and there, "Rushmore" is a picture where I constantly waited for some sort of plot to make itself known, but it never did and that's the main problem I had with the picture: there's so little there that, in
essence, it left my thoughts as quickly as it was entering. In one ear and out the other.
The picture's anti-hero is one Max Fischer, a strange high schooler who does excellently at extracurricular activities such as putting on plays and starting clubs, but his grades at Rushmore, the elite private academy he attends, are quickly falling
into the failing range. Why is Max Fisher who he is? We're never clued in on the character's motives or really just who he is. There's no focus to the character's development. Not that his character develops into anything new by the end of the film.
Midway through, Max meets a new teacher at Rushmore, Rosemary Cross(Olivia Williams) and begins to fall head over heels in love for the young teacher. He's also made a new friend in Herman Blume(Bill Murray), a Rushmore graduate who went on to become
a steel tycoon. Rosemary at first tries to explain to Max that she's far too old for the young student, but he's not convinced by her arguement. He's driven over the edge, though, by the discovery that Herman has been seeing the young teacher on the
side.
The film tries to be sophisticated and witty, but it never really gains any forward momentum. The plot, what little there is of one, is paced out awkwardly and frequently, I felt the picture was frustratingly slow. As good as Bill Murray's performance
is, there isn't much to the character as the true focus of the film is always Max, who, strangely looks like the director of this film. Could it be autobiographical?
Schwartzman has a great performance, but unfortunately the character is completely unlikeable as he stalks the young woman. It's an "indie" "There's Something About Mary", only "Rushmore" doesn't have the laughs and to be honest, the further Max
went in his persuit of love, the more disturbing the character is. It's a comedy, or at least the advertisement said it was, didn't it? Nothing about the actions of the Schwartzbaum character were amusing, though. He does have one great scene, though:
walking out of a hotel where he's just taken revenge on Blume, the camera follows Max down a hall in slow motion as he extinguishes his cigarette by putting it out on the nearest wall. It's funny, it's nicely shot and the scene works as the kind
of dark comedic aspect that the picture was apparently going for.
If I can say anything positive about the film, it's that I loved the way that Anderson composed the shots. Shot in the widescreen scope aspect ratio which is abnormal for a character-driven film like this one, every shot seems to go on forever as the
characters interact in the foreground. It adds to the sort of dark fairy tale tone of the film, which is supplimented by curtains that mark time frames in the film, month by month, which open to reveal new events. Anderson's first film, "Bottle Rocket",
didn't have much of a plot either, but a few very big laughs and great performances gave it the momentum it needed to sustain interest. That's all missing from "Rushmore", a film that has a few quick laughs but not enough, in my opinion, to pull viewers
through the 90 minute film which, to me, felt like more along the lines of three hours. A lot of people love this film and although I didn't mind it, I still don't see what the fuss is about.
THE DVD:
VIDEO QUALITY: Usually Disney's new releases look pretty strong, such as Enemy Of The State. This one, on the other hand, is dissapointing. The image quality is clear, but not sharp- some of the indoor scenes do look slightly soft; the outdoor scenes generally fare a little better in terms of sharpness than the indoor scenes. My biggest problem with this disc is that there are some very slight artifacts in the image during a number of scenes. The artifacts aren't terribly distracting when they make an appearance, but I did find them noticable. The print used has a few tiny scratches, but other than that, it's fine. It's just not as clean and smooth looking an image as a lot of Disney's new releases are. Colors are accurate to the intent of the film's basic color scheme and flesh tones are generally accurate as well. Contrast levels are fine and shadow detail is good as well. This isn't a terrible transfer and certainly better than Disney's recent release of Flirting With Disaster, but I expected more(I should learn to expect less from Disney's DVDs...) from the image quality on this disc. The picture is letterboxed at 2.35:1.
SOUND: The highlight is, of course, the Mark Mothersbaugh(from the band Devo) score, full of 60's hits from bands like the Kinks and the Faces. The music sounds fine- clear, clean and rich. Dialogue is natural and without any problems. An enjoyable sound mix throughout.
MENUS: Menus based on the cover art, just the basic Disney menus, no more- no less..
EXTRAS: Just the trailer.
GRADES:
The Film: 82/B = (410/500 possible points)
Video: 87/B = (348/400 possible points)
Audio: 89/B+ = (356/400 possible points)
Extras: 70/C = (210/300 possible points)
Menus: 73/C = (146/200 possible points)
Value: 86/B = (258/300 possible points)
Presentation:79.75/C = (79.75/100 possible points)
TOTAL POINTS:1807.75/2200
Overall:82%/B
Final Thoughts: A disc that's decent in quality and like Disney's other releases, has really nothing in the way of extra features. A lot of people loved this movie, but I simply just thought it was okay. If you enjoyed the film, it's definitely worth taking a look at the disc. I certainly would have liked something in the way of extra features here, a commentary by director Wes Anderson or at least a featurette... something, anything. $29.99 is asking too much for just the trailer and a non-anamorphic transfer.
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