Rushmore 1999
I saw Rushmore last night and thought it was pretty good. There were some funny moments in it and the kid did a great job of carrying the movie. His character was really well written and conceived and I liked that. Too many characters in movies are flat or sterotypes, this one was neither a loser dweeb nor smarter-than-everyone prodigy. He enjoyed respect even from classmates who would never befriend him. Though he turned out to be pretty obnoxious at times I like that they redeemed him somewhat towards the end. I thought Bill Murray was good, but everyone was saying how this was an oscar-caliber performance and I don’t think it was, even in the supporting category where sometimes an actor can be just a little offbeat and win an oscar.
I think one reason critics like this movie is that they see every movie that comes out so when one comes along as different as this one, they think it is good because it is different. This is a different kind of movie, but there is always a little bit of Steve Urkle in there that is hard to shake.
Nonetheless, this is a pretty enjoyable film about a high schooler growing up which avoids almost all the regular pitfalls.
I give it a B.