The movie Rushmore had its world premiere at the 25th Telluride Film Festival in 1998 where it was one of the few studio films well-received by critics and audiences. Starting at 8 p.m. on July 27, Hong Kong's Culture Club Gallery will screen the same film.

This comedy-drama directed by Wes Anderson follows an eccentric teenager named Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), his friendship with rich industrialist Herman Blume (Bill Murray) and their mutual love for elementary school teacher Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams).

Rushmore has style in spades. A glorious, gleeful, freewheeling joy in cinema helps to carry the story. Oddly, some old devices (with echoes of Chaplin, Keaton, the Marx Brothers, Tati and Woody Allen) seem fresh and new. This film uses all the old tricks to show life being lived, not an imposed thesis.

The film does interesting things with Oedipal conflicts. Various father / son relationships face pressure or hostility. The dead influence the living. Unwritten stories intrude on people trying to write the stories of their own lives.

Culture Club Gallery
Central, Hong Kong

(July 23, 2010)



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