... best play ever, man.

Wes Anderson seems to have cornered the market on quirky films. This 1998 follow up to his film "Bottle rocket" seemed to establish him as the new king of slightly off-center films.

"Rushmore" is a Holden Caufield-esque coming of age story of a very precocious high school student at a prestigious academy who spends more of his time in extra-curricular activities than his academic pursuits. This story finds the main character, Max Fischer (played by Jason Schwartzman), involved in a love triangle of sorts with an eccentric and bored and burned-out steel tycoon Herman Blume (played by Bill Murray) and a recently widowed 1st grade teacher Rosemary Cross (played by Olivia Williams)

Max and Blume strike up a friendship based on the two seeing aspects of their "ideal self" in each other. Max then falls for Ms. Cross and upon sharing this with Blume, he promptly follows suit. Friendship takes a competitive turn and Max and Blume engage in a series of personal attacks which prove to be hysterical. ...

Despite the fact that Ms. Cross sees qualities of her deceased husband in Max, she is obviously too old for him, but still holds a special place in her heart for Max. Blume also fails to win her affection as he is married, and too old.

The subversive humor of this film is not delivered nicely on a silver platter. The quirky and endearing characters that Anderson presents to us are a refreshing alternative to the watered-down trite ones so often seen in blockbuster comedies.

If you are looking for a great story with slightly different characters, check out Rushmore. It doesn't disappoint.

By the way the soundtrack is fantastic... (listen to the Kinks song in this scene!!)