Everyone I've met who didn't like Rushmore, didn't like Max. I've never thought of him as cool, exactly, (he's not popular at school, he's not that bright, he's more than a little obsessive, and throughout most of the movie he's falling apart), but he lives life at this sort of heightened pitch.

I think the key to understanding Max is realizing that he's never gotten over his mother's death, he's a lower middle class kid going to a rich prep school, he's only 15 and pretty immature, and he doesn't believe in doing anything half-assed.

Everyone I've met who didn't like Rushmore, didn't like Max.

I don't think I disliked Max. The movie just didn't do anything for me. I didn't see what the big deal was. I have yet to see Royal Tenenbaums or Bottle Rocket.

But like I said, it's one of those movies I've been meaning to give a second chance to because I'm wondering what everyone else sees in it. Lost will get one too some day, I guess.

I'm in the "Hated Max, Hated Rushmore" camp. It just seemed like a certain kind of male fantasy set to film, and I think it's extremely overrated.

I did like The Royal Tennenbaums, however.

Is First Knight the Gere/Connery/Julia Ormond thing? It was extremely unintentionally funny.

He is his own worst enemy, that's the sad part, but he's also wonderfully generative.

Yeah, that's him exactly!

But I can understand why someone wouldn't like Max or Rushmore. I mean, I've got a friend who doesn't like Lloyd Dobbler at all. It's all personal preference and what we bring to the table going into the movie. (Dustin Hoffman's character in the Graduate annoys me, for instance, even though a lot of people relate to him).

I don't like Max, but I feel for him. And I love that he dives right in and lives out his obssessions. There's a fearlessness there which is lots of fun to watch.

Saw "Before Sunset" last night as well. Also liked it muchly. The acting and writing was wonderful. It felt so natural and flowed so seamlessly that all of the creative work whih went into it was hidden and that made it even more impressive. I did think Hawke looked like a heroin addict, which was a little creepy.

I did think Hawke looked like a heroin addict, which was a little creepy.

He DID look bad, didn't he? It was refreshing to see a movie with someone who doesn't have perfectly white teeth.

I don't like Max, but I feel for him. And I love that he dives right in and lives out his obssessions. There's a fearlessness there which is lots of fun to watch.

Also, by the end of the movie, he seems to have grown. A lot. And learned. He's still obsessive (hence the staged Apocolypse Now), but he seems to have more of an awareness of himself vis-a-vis other people. It was the growth that really worked for me.

He DID look bad, didn't he? It was refreshing to see a movie with someone who doesn't have perfectly white teeth.

My friend and I were whispering about this for about the first 5 minutes. I thought he looked really bad and it took me a few minutes to get beyond that. I feel really shallow that I noticed his teeth so much - what got me was not the whiteness, but they looked uneven or something. It distracted me until they got to the cafe. Once they weren't walking any more I was able to focus more on the story. BTW, I also loved the timing of the ending - it was the perfect way to end a romantic film. Sometimes, it's a better story if you don't know the end. Which I guess was the point of the first film as well.

The teeth didn't bother me so much (probably because I am a huge fan of British cinema), but the gauntness and bad skin did. That's what felt junkie-ish and squicky to me.

The teeth didn't bother me so much (probably because I am a huge fan of British cinema), but the gauntness and bad skin did. That's what felt junkie-ish and squicky to me.

He didn't look like a junkie to me--more like a guy who had had a really rough couple of years. I was very surprised how much I liked him in this. In Sunrise, Delpy was the one I connected to, but in Sunset he just seemed so quietly defeated. That moment when she hugged him he really did seem like a guy who was aching to be touched.