Rushmore is a 1998 American comedy film[1] directed by Wes Anderson about a teenager named Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman in his film debut), his friendship with rich industrialist Herman Blume (Bill Murray), and their shared affection for elementary school teacher Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams).

Eccentric 15-year-old scholarship student Max Fischer participates extensively in extracurricular activities at the prestigious Rushmore Academy in Houston, but struggles academically.

Max's middle-class background, which contrasts with the wealthy and privileged lives of most Rushmore students, feeds his determination to make his name known.

At a school assembly, Max meets Herman Blume, a disillusioned parent and local industrialist who despises his twin sons Ronny and Donny, both students at Rushmore.

Attempting to woo her, he successfully petitions to have the Latin curriculum kept at Rushmore, and later confesses his love for her; she rejects his affection due to their age difference.

Max then attempts to court Rosemary by building an aquarium on the school's baseball field, noting her interest in marine life due to the fish tanks in her classroom and the library book by Jacques Cousteau they had both read, but is stopped by Guggenheim at the ground-breaking ceremony and subsequently expelled from Rushmore for having never sought the school's approval for the project.

Blume tells him that Rosemary broke up with him because she's still in love with her dead husband Edward Appleby, a former Rushmore student, whose death the previous year directly influenced her decision to teach there.

With Rushmore, Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson wanted to create their own "slightly heightened reality, like a Roald Dahl children's book".

[6] Rushmore was originally going to be made for New Line Cinema[7] but when they could not agree on a budget, Anderson, Wilson and producer Barry Mendel held an auction for the film rights in mid-1997 and struck a deal with Joe Roth, then-chair of Walt Disney Studios.

[11] The actor was drawn to Anderson and Wilson's "precise" writing and felt that a lot of the film was about "the struggle to retain civility and kindness in the face of extraordinary pain.

[4] Cast directors considered 1,800 teenagers from the United States, Canada, and Britain for the role of Max Fischer before finding Jason Schwartzman.

[13] In October 1997, approximately a month before principal photography was to begin, a casting director for the film met the seventeen-year-old actor at a party thanks to Schwartzman's cousin, film-maker Sofia Coppola.

[7] Anderson originally pictured Max, physically, as Mick Jagger at age 15,[6] to be played by an actor like Noah Taylor in the Australian film Flirting—"a pale, skinny kid".

Disney executives almost cancelled the montage sequence as they did not believe that these short singular shots were necessary due to the film's restrictive budget and time frame.

She observes a tension between irony and affect, and the clash "between these aesthetic modes destabilises normative assumptions and expectations in relation to character engagement."

For her Anderson uses a "series of strategies in relation to framing, camera angles, shot scales, sound and performance that are designed to unsettle the audience's experience of proximity to, and hence intimacy with, the characters".

Rachel Joseph speculates that there is a link between these "screened stages" and the theme of mourning, for this "framed theatricality ... parallels the grieving process of reenacting and repeating the traumatic".

[32] Anderson also pays homage to the Charles Schulz/Bill Melendez Peanuts television specials, playing "Hark The Herald Angels Sing"[33] from the famous Charlie Brown Christmas in one of the film's scenes.

The site's critical consensus reads, "This cult favorite is a quirky coming of age story, with fine, off-kilter performances from Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray.

[42] In his review for the Daily News, film critic Dave Kehr praised Rushmore as "a magnificent work" and picked it as the best movie of the year.

[44] Todd McCarthy, in his review for Variety, admired the film's deep-focus widescreen compositions, and felt that it gave the story "exceptional vividness".

[46] In her review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote that Anderson is smart enough to avoid turning sentimental, observing how Max "starts off on top of the Rushmore world and experiences a wonderfully welcome comeuppance".

[16] In his review for The Independent, Anthony Quinn thought Rushmore was different than all the many "high-school flicks every week", describing it as a "adolescent tragi-comedy, neurotic-romantic triangle" and a "study in loss and loneliness".

[47] In her review for the Washington Post, Rita Kempley praised Schwartzman's performance for winning "sympathy and a great deal of affection for Max, never mind that he could grow into Sidney Blumenthal".

[48] Entertainment Weekly gave Rushmore an "A" rating and opined that Anderson used the 1960s British Invasion hits to "further define Max's adolescent dislocation".

[49] Jonathan Rosenbaum, in his review for the Chicago Reader, wrote that Anderson and Wilson do not "share the class snobbery" in much of Salinger's work, but still thought that they "harbor a protective gallantry toward their characters" which is, at the same time, the film's greatest strength and weakness.

In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan criticized Max's overtly "snooty" personality as "too off-putting to tolerate", which could potentially discourage audiences when identifying with the film.

[54] A lifelong fan of film critic Pauline Kael, Anderson arranged a private screening of Rushmore for the retired writer.

[15] Anderson and Jason Schwartzman traveled from Los Angeles to New York City and back on a touring bus to promote the film.

[12] The Los Angeles Film Critics Association named Bill Murray Best Supporting Actor of the year for his performance in Rushmore.