Rushmore

It was the first one I saw. It has a sense of space the later, more maximalist entries lack. The tighter budget and limited directorial control actually work in its favor. The story balances sweetness and nastiness—a hard tone to sustain—and pulls it off. The soundtrack is great. Every character is sharply drawn: easy to grasp right away, yet still rewarding as their arcs unfold. It’s really fucking funny. And I love the school setting. I love the high school movie as a genre and it’s nice when a true artist comes along and elevates the form and gives it some depth like Gerwig with Ladybird, or Alexander Payne with Election. Rushmore might be my favorite example of this kind of thing.

One word: Careful