Rushmore

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

With its dry, throwaway humor and constant stream of chuckles, it creates its own category of stealth comedy.

Film.com John Hartl

For me, the experience was much like seeing Mike Nichols' "The Graduate" and George Lucas' "American Graffiti" before the hype machines kicked in.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

A work of loopy, original comic genius.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Murray, meanwhile, turns in a thrillingly knowing, unforced performance--an award-worthy high point in a career that continues, Max Fischer style, to defy the obvious at every turn.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

One of the freshest, richest, most original films to come out of Hollywood in a very long time.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Anderson fulfills the promise of his inventive "Bottle Rocket" with this quirky, often hilarious comedy, and Murray gives his most uproarious performance since the groundbreaking "Groundhog Day."

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Stylistically fresh and full of sweetness that never cloys, this is contemporary Hollywood filmmaking at its near best.

TNT RoughCut Brian M. Raftery

The scene-stealer here is Bill Murray, who, after 25 years of near-hits, finds his most fully realized character yet.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

I can't remember a teenage romance this engagingly offbeat since "Lord Love a Duck."

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

It's the funniest, saddest performance of the year in a film of uncompromising wit and heart.

Newsweek Jeff Giles

A marvelous comedy from deep in left field -- immaculately written, unexpectedly touching and pure of heart.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Rushmore is an almost indefinable genre of its own. A comedy with a menacing edge? An ironic romance? Hard to call.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Fast, exhilarating new comedy.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Weird, warm, monumentally entertaining comedy.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

It's too smart to be maudlin.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Wickedly funny.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Filled with brilliant, stand-out performances.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

One of the most original, good-hearted comedies in a long time, Rushmore is the sort of movie where the strangest sequences of discords somehow keep managing to reach giddily improbable resolutions.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A true original: a film that stands apart from the crowd, goes its own way and all but dares you not to like it.

San Francisco Examiner G. Allen Johnson

A weird, wonderful and funny work that stands as a true original. As if that weren't enough, director and co-writer Anderson has given Bill Murray his best role in years.

Film.com Elizabeth Weitzman

Battling back with droll seriousness, Murray imbues his sad-sack loner with a touching, funny dignity, and comes up with his best work in a very long time.

Time Richard Schickel

An often deft, frequently droll little movie.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

A beautifully off-center movie.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

With the astonishingly assured newcomer Jason Schwartzman to bounce off of, Murray has his best comic foil since those feisty rodents in Groundhog Day and Caddyshack. [5 February 1999, Life, p.11E]

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

One of the great things about this unpredictable, exhilaratingly goofy fable is how it shows that even the clueless - and the tragically morose - have a shot at redemption.

Film.com Peter Brunette

One of the weirdest, hardest-to-place studio films I've seen in years.

TV Guide Sandra Contreras

This film is the product of artists working at the peak of their powers.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Seems torn between conflicting possibilities: It's structured like a comedy, but there are undertones of darker themes, and I almost wish they'd allowed the plot to lead them into those shadows.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Rushmore is one of those films that's so inconsequential that its memory threatens to fade away before the end credits have finished rolling.

Dallas Observer Michael Sragow

By the end, were it not for Murray, watching Rushmore would be like reading an article on "Why adolescents need Prozac."

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

You can't have Rushmore without Max, and though Anderson obviously planned it this way, the kid is finally too off-putting to tolerate.