The mind of writer and director Wes Anderson is easily one of the most fascinating and unique in the world of film today. Anderson has the ability to create, quirky worlds with quirkier characters that live in them. His stories are always deeply rooted in emotion and character objectives and that is what makes him one of the best filmmakers working today.

“Rushmore” was Anderson’s second film and it is one of his best. “Rushmore” is the story of Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) who is an extracurricular extraordinaire, attending the prestigious Rushmore Academy boarding school, where he is known as the most loyal but worst student the school has ever had. When Fischer finds a book in the library that has a hand-written quote in the front cover by Jacques Cousteau, he goes into an investigation to find out who wrote it in the book. He soon finds out that it was Miss Cross (Olivia Williams) a first grade teacher at Rushmore. Fischer immediately falls in love with her, and tries to attract her attention by saving the Latin program and also building a full scale aquarium for the school. To get money to accomplish these feats Fischer requires the help of a steel tycoon named Blume (Bill Murray), who also instantly falls in love with Miss Cross upon meeting her. From here the movie turns into a back and forth competition between Max and Blume, competing for Miss Cross.

Max Fischer is a rare character who struggles to succeed in a society that puts so much emphasize on good grades, attendance and what college you apply to, and get into. Max does not succeed in any of these things but he shows us that you can still accomplish great things outside of the norm. One of the coolest features about Max is that he is an avid playwright and puts on many Broadway level productions at Rushmore, such as one based off the 1973 film “Serpico” and another about the Vietnam war.

“Rushmore” like all of Anderson’s movies goes against categorization, the film shows the pain and extravagance of adolescence with wit, emotional depth, and cinematic gusto.