After the highly acclaimed independent film
Bottle Rocket, director
Wes Anderson followed up with a quirky Touchstone Studios film entitled Rushmore. Written by Anderson and friend
Owen Wilson (an actor in
Armageddon and
Anaconda), they created the story of Max Fischer, a highly eccentric 15-year-old boy who attends the tenth grade at Rushmore Academy. Played by
Jason Schwartzman (
Talia Shire's son and
Francis Ford Coppola's nephew), Max is a poor student with big dreams and a love of extracurricular activities. Max is editor of the school newspaper and yearbook, president of the chess, astronomy, French, and German clubs, captain of the fencing team, and director of the school play. Max is also a compulsive liar, telling everyone that his barber father (
Seymour Cassel) is really a brain surgeon. Suddenly Max falls in love with Miss Cross (
Olivia Williams), a first-grade teacher at the school. He also makes a new friend in business tycoon Mr. Blume (
Bill Murray), an eccentric millionaire who also loves Miss Cross. The love triangle heats up as Max refuses to believe that his age has anything to do with Miss Cross refusing his romantic advances. Also Max's scheme to erect an aquarium on the school baseball diamond gets him booted out of Rushmore Academy. As his life crumbles around him, he is forced to grow up and accept the consequences of his actions and his lies. He throws himself more into his extracurricular activities, hoping to redeem himself by staging the most ambitious school play ever attempted. ~ Arthur Borman, All Movie Guide