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| Jason
Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams, Seymour Cassel, Brian Cox,
Mason Gamble |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Herman
Blume: Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would have children
like these...
An
eccentric student at a private school falls in love with a teacher and
develops an unlikely friendship with a morose businessman.
 Rushmore
is one of those quirky little movies difficult to classify and even
harder to judge. Drawing heavily on The Graduate in style and
tone, the movie revolves around the strange character of Max Fischer,
an unsuccessful but resourceful and energetic student whose life is
dedicated to extracurricular activities at Rushmore academy until he
falls in love with one of the teachers. Fischer is an extraordinary
and unique character, one that can only be taken on his own terms and
whose adolescent posturing can be both endearing and irritating. It's
a character so eccentric that he's always on the verge of becoming artificial,
but Jason Schwartzman's performance keeps him grounded in an odd reality,
and also manages to give this infuriatingly stubborn figure a touching
fragility.
Bill Murray's performance as weary, depressed millionaire Herman Blume
is even better: a career-best performance that turns his trademark cynical
wise-guy persona upside down into an extraordinary sadness and world-weariness
that is as funny as it is believable. These two oddball characters go
on an weird emotional journey together, in which they find themselves
sometimes allies, sometimes enemies, but always clear soul mates. The
sometimes bumpy narrative path they take together takes a little getting
used to, but grows on you as the film progresses and finally develops
into an oddly affecting comedy that takes an unusual stance and more
than a few risks, and is all the more rewarding for it. |
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A
movie-only version is available from Buena Vista for both Region 1 and
Region 2. The Region 2 release is anamorphic whereas the Region 1 movie-only
edition is not. There is also a Criterion
Edition available for Region 1 only. This review deals only with
the Region 2 release.
The
widescreen image is framed at 2.35:1 and is anamorphic on the Criterion
and the Region 2 releases of the DVD. Both present an outstanding image
with deep blacks and a full recreation of the movie's rich colors and
expert cinematography. The Criterion version with its careful new transfer
supervised by the director is perhaps a notch above the R2 movie-only
edition, but both provide superb presentations.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mix is crystal clear, putting the surround
sound field to work more than one would expect from such a 'small' film.
Especially the distinctive score and the great British Invasion tunes
get an excellent treatment in this immersive audio presentation.
The
theatrical trailer is the only extra.
The
static menu screens offer few options while poster art provides the
background image.
Dan Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on Rushmore.
Click here
to return to the front page.
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