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Arts and Entertainment
Rushmore" a monument unto itself
A national treasure in Anderson's new release
Jonathan Howard
Co-Editor in Chief
To deem Wes
Anderson's new "dramedy"
"Rushmore" hilarious
would be undercutting the
many layers of this well-
spun tale.
This movie is, at once,
a story of love and hate,
good and evil (though it's
hard to figure out who's
which), and, eventually,
"Heaven and Hell" (you'll
see). But, I mean, yeah, the
joint is hilarious.
Rotating around the
story of 10th grader Max
Fischer (played deftly by
newcomer Jason Schwartz),
"Rushmore" invites us into
Max's world, a world that
begins and ends with his
beloved Rushmore
Academy.
Max was given a
scholarship to the school
for writing a play ... when
he was four ... about
Watergate.
Despite his obvious
talents, Max has one prob
lem. He is the worst stu
dent at Rushmore.
During one of the
college's Chapel sessions,
Max hears and is
enamored by a speech
given by Mr. Blume (Bill
Murray, in a performance
worth some major acting
award).
Blume eventually takes
Max under his wing and
acts as mentor. The two
become good friends
(Mistake number one).
Soon, Max falls for Miss
Cross, a widowed first-
grade teacher.
As an expression of his
love, he plans to destroy
the school's baseball field
and erect an aquarium in
its place ... using money
from Blume. As a result,
Max is expelled from
Rushmore.
Coincidentally, Mr.
Blume falls for Miss Cross
(Mistake number two) and
when Max finds out, all
hell breaks loose.
The war begins.
The rest of the movie is
a spectacular battle of wills
between Max and Blume,
two men who seem to have
the patent on revenge.
"Rushmore" is an
excellent film, one that is
funny without insulting
your intelligence. Wes
Anderson does a great job
of capturing the right shot
for the right sequence.
Schwartzman seemed to be
living the role rather than
playing it, and Bill Murray
gives one of his funniest
performances ever in a
quiet, odd, sad way.
"Rushmore" should al
ready be up for a plethora
of major awards,and de
servedly so. A four-star
movie that's better than its
hype, "Rushmore" is well
worth the view.
Jawbreaker bites
"Coming-of-rage" flick more Lemonhead than Red Hot
now am loathe to.
In fact, I'd have to
say that the only
other character
worth viewing is
the impossibly
large jawbreaker-
cum-goiter that be
comes lodged in a
pretty dead girl's
throat.
It all begins in
beautiful upscale
LA. Or at least that's
the impression
taken from the mul
tiple pastel-painted
Julie Benz, Rebecca Gayheart and Rose McGowan star in houses, the endless
"Jawbreaker"
Jonathan Howard
Co-Editor in Chief
You know, I realized
while viewing the
sickeningly patched together
"Jawbreaker" that I could
watch Rose McGowan read
the Yellow Pages in a port-a-
potty and still walk away
with a sense of personal
satisfaction in knowing that
there is an actress here to
save us from the inane
Jennifer Love-Hewitt's of the
acting world.
Unfortunately, for the
movie and its viewers,
McGowan is a rare shining
spot in this otherwise tepid
homage to "Heathers," a
movie I have not seen and
array of high-priced
automobiles and the
token Black female
in Tatyana Ali. As a gag (pun
intended), Courtney
(McGowan), Julie (the now
overused Rebecca Gayheart)
and Marcie (a late twenties
Julie Benz) hog-tie and bind
their best friend Liz Purr for
a faux kidnapping on her
birthday. These four are the
fashion and couture elite at
Reagan High and do things
like this for fun ... and stuff.
Courtney decides to place a
jawbreaker in Liz's mouth for
added effect and, well, "she
swallowed it!!" Now with a
dead body in the trunk and
jail time (which would mean
missing the Prom!!) on their
minds, Courtney decides the
best thing to do would be to
cover up the boo-boo by mak
ing it seem like an S&M mis
hap.
All goes well until the
plotting is overheard by the
school's resident geek
emeritus, Fern Mayo. In
another flash of brilliance,
Courtney offers Fern the one
thing no nerd can resist - a
place among the "stars." Fern
becomes the made-over
Vylette and casually takes
Liz's place in the Fantastic
Four, or three, since Julie has
now given it all up for
repentance, denim and
(heaven forbid!) less makeup. ■
When a detective (Foxy
Brown, herself, Ms. Pam
Grier) moves in to investigate
student involvement in the
crime and Vylette gains more
power, Courtney resorts to
whatever means necessary
to stay in control and keep
the lie alive. ANY means.
This movie drew on just
about every possible 70's-
80's "coming of age"-slash-
"rest in pieces, prom bitch!!"
movie available to no avail.
After an hour in, you begin
to wish most of the
characters had suffered the
same fate as the poor,
beautiful, rigor mortised Liz.
It is fun to watch for Marilyn
Manson's cameo in the flick,
though the "Carrie" like
ending almost had me
expecting spontaneous
combustion, emergency
door-slamming shut and
repeated cries of "they're all
gonna laugh at you!" In the
end, though, I felt like I
deserved to be laughed at for
whoring away my time and
hard-earnedmoney
watching this film.