RUSHMORE  (1998)  ***

Reviewed 10/10/98

Director Wes (Bottle Rocket) Anderson's second film is a comedy about a student (Jason Schwartzman, son of Talia Shire) in love with his exclusive private school and then with a second-grade teacher (Olivia Williams) at the school. Bill Murray, in a highly overrated performance, plays a millionaire whose twin jock sons go to the school, and he ends up befriending Schwartzman. The film's tone is wildly uneven with aspirations toward being both The Graduate and Harold and Maude (not in content, just style). Some of the more amusing bits comes from high schoolers staging plays on Serpico and Vietnam. Schwartzman is superb, but Olivia Williams tops him, putting in one of the best performances I've seen all year. Flawed but worthwhile.