1/23/2024 0 Comments Kite 1998 film![]() Rushmore is a movie about a teenager like no other, who seems to believe acting like an “adult” will allow him to bypass all the emotional turmoil of growing up. Projects like Asteroid City and Moonrise Kingdom focus on eccentric Wes Anderson youngsters bonding with one another over their shared passions. Specifically, Fischer is an outsider even in the cushy world of Rushmore (he’s practically from another planet once he transfers to the realm of public education!) He’s the only one of his classmates who commits to wearing the school uniform, while most of the other teenagers around him talk about “handjobs” while he waxes poetic on the finer intricacies of play directing. ![]() Max Fischer is a great early example of this phenomenon, but one reason he’s so compelling is that he’s also distinctly different from other adolescent protagonists in the Wes Anderson canon. Wes Anderson's films often focus on souls barely comprehending great emotional struggles and trying to fill their aching voids by exerting control over any or every aspect of their lives. Even the one kid in Asteroid City obsessed with dares does so just so he can try and reinforce his existence in a scarily massive universe. The adults of Moonrise Kingdom, meanwhile, are all barely acknowledging lots of internalized emotional turmoil as they try to exert control over a pair of adolescent lovers who have run away from home. Fox tries to take control of a complicated double life and ignores his loved ones in the process. I don't want to live in a hole anymore.” In pursuit of “a better life,” Mr. Fox, a critter who declared “I am seven non-fox years old. It is a character that mirrors future Anderson leads like Mr. In this case, Fischer is the son of a barber (a profession Fischer is initially so ashamed of that he lies to people by telling them his father works as a neurosurgeon) living in a ramshackle house while grieving for his deceased mother. He is a figure who clamors for control as an evasion from the status quo he’s known all his life. Max Fischer is the quintessential Wes Anderson protagonist. This kid is so out of his element, he thinks he has all the answers…but like all of us, he doesn’t have a clue. Anderson wrings the dissonance between Fischer’s personality and his actual age for both amusing gags (the cherub-looking Schwartzman talking about Harvard as a “backup option” is hysterical) and poignancy. It is only used to highlight how this character is, above all else, a child. Fischer’s arrogance doesn’t result in him constantly winning lots of loot or romantic affection. Other artists would’ve just made Max Fischer so insufferable that you would have to turn Rushmore off after 20 minutes, but Anderson and company never forget one thing: we’re watching a 15-year-old. Anderson’s writing chops are exemplary in the tiniest nuances of this character, including how the script makes sure to tear him down enough so that he is bearable to watch on-screen. That simultaneous depiction of emotionally sympathetic qualities and immediately worrisome traits is a complicated brew…which is exactly why Max Fischer is such a fascinating character to follow. He wants to be deified, not just another pal in the classroom. Meanwhile, his character defects are also apparent in this sequence, as Fischer also imagines himself above his classmates. ![]() Fischer yearns for connection, to be seen and recognized by his classmates. This 15-year-old always puts on a clinical demeanor when talking, but this dream betrays that exterior. There is something innately sympathetic about Fischer wanting to be accepted by his brethren. This sequence already establishes the complicated ambiance of Rushmore that is to follow in the rest of Anderson and Owen Wilson’s screenplay. Quickly, Fischer is jostled back into reality, where he’s a social outcast and can’t solve a math problem to save his life. Once he gets the equation right (and thus ensuring, per his teacher’s bet, they never have to “open another textbook” the rest of the year), his fellow students put him on their shoulders and cheer his name. Rushmore begins with a dream sequence, in which Max Fischer imagines himself cracking an unsolvable math problem in front of the entire class without ever having to put down a steaming cup of tea.
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