(Thanks to reader chad osko for the tip.)

Happy Father’s Day from our dysfunctional family to yours…

The A.V. Club recently sat down with Olivia Williams for their great “Random Roles” feature, and one of the films they talked about was, of course, Rushmore.

An except is below, with more after the cut. Read the full article here.

Rushmore (1998)—“Rosemary Cross”

AVC: Wes Anderson was still somewhat of an unknown filmmaker then. What was it like working with him?

OW: I was still in my “do what you’re told” phase, which I’m still pretty well in. It’s served me pretty well. As an actor, you’re just taking temperature. I am anyway, all the time, and responding appropriately. Have you seen Bill Murray’s subsequent film, Lost In Translation? That was what it was like. I was again cast very last-minute and met Wes, this quite physically and socially awkward man who didn’t really talk to me much, a precocious and intelligent young boy. And Bill Murray. And we were sort of left in this bizarre hotel together and taken to strange locations around Houston. That was quite an isolating experience. Again, a lot of fun, but I didn’t really know what was going on. [Laughs.] Bill was incredibly charming and funny and nice, but we were all in a strange vacuum.

Read the rest of this entry…

So as you may have read on our twitter page (@RushmoreAcademy), Wes was one of the names rumoured to be on Sony’s wishlist of directors for their proposed Spiderman reboot before Marc Webb was chosen. Jeff Loveness has made a parody video based on that possibility, it is below.

Our favorite Wes parody is still the McCain ad.

via /Film, Yankee Racer Magnus Rushlee

An interesting article today from The A.V. Club on the philosophies of some of Bill Murray’s most famous characters, including Herman Blume from Rushmore.

The asceticism of Scrooged and Rushmore
As practiced by certain sects of Hinduism, Jainists, and even Christians who reject the ideas of “prosperity theology” (and actually, you know, listen to Jesus), asceticism involves a conscious abstaining from worldly pleasures in favor of focusing on one’s spiritual life. While he doesn’t end up wandering the desert in sackcloth eating only what may fall into his bowl, Murray does arrive at these basic tenets of asceticism in two of his most popular roles: In Scrooged, Murray’s Frank Cross is dedicated to success no matter the cost to his basic humanity, until a night of being tormented by spirits—who are really just manifestations of his own conscience—opens his eyes to the simpler joys of “putting a little love in your heart” and helping your fellow man. In Rushmore, Murray’s Herman Blume is a self-made tycoon with his own multimillion-dollar business and the lifestyle to match, yet he’s crippled by ennui, and despairing over the alienation he feels toward his family. Pursuit of a truer definition of love eventually tears his world apart—and wrecks him both financially and physically—but by movie’s end, Blume has undergone a total spiritual reawakening, and seems to have found happiness at last in his total unburdening.

Read the full article at The A.V. Club.

Want to say Happy Thanksgiving in a Wes-y kinda way? Send our video!

E-mail, tweet or telegraph it by sending one of the links below:

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDU26QEYg20

twitterable link: http://bit.ly/6s83Uc

Jason Schwartzman appeared this past Wednesday on KCRW’s excellent program The Treatment, hosted by former New York Times critic and TCM host Elvis Mitchell.

Schwartzman elaborates on his use of music in preparing for his roles, his appreciation for great writing, and working with Sofia Coppola and Wes Anderson. He also discusses his character in Bored to Death, a Brooklyn-based lovelorn writer-turned-private detective.

You can stream the show and download a podcast of it at KCRW’s website, where you can also listen to past shows with Wes Anderson (1999, 2002, 2004) and Noah Baumbach among many other great filmmakers. (KCRW also talked to Jason about some of his favorite songs last year, you can listen to that here.)

As we mentioned yesterday on Twitter, there’s a great new profile on Wes in this week’s New Yorker by Richard Brody. Click on the thumbnails below to read the article and let us know what you think in the comments.