Rushmore
Re-watching 1998's RUSHMORE made me realize how much more I love Wes Anderson's early films. I do like most of his work, even the ones that prove frustrating (THE LIFE AQUATIC.... THE DARJEELING LIMITED, THE FRENCH DISPATCH ). But his obsession with art direction and detail has sometimes overridden the emotional content, the connections with characters, creating fascinating but cold exercises in design and color schemes. And symmetry. Co-writer/director Anderson's second film (after BOTTLE ROCKET) would be his true calling card, a proper introduction to the world of his sensibilities. The characters' dialogue and interaction in RUSHMORE also feel more human. Plausible, even if the world in which they reside seems slightly fantastic. The co-writer is frequent star/collaborator Owen Wilson, and the screenplay is somewhat autobiographical. How close Max Fischer is to Wes or Owen is left to our conjecture. When Max mounts elaborate thea...
