Rushmore is a film about obsession, and the relationship between Max and Bloom is the driving force behind the drama, going from love to hate, and back again. One is a 15-year-old boy, the other a 50-year-old man, but for the entirety of the film it's unclear who is the adult, particularly when they're competing for the affection of Ms Cross. At one point Max fills Bloom's hotel room with bees, to which Bloom responds by repeatedly driving over his love rival's bicycle, only to later find the brake cables on his Bentley cut. All this to win the heart of a recently widowed woman still struggling to cope with her loss. Incidentally, when you see Ms Cross teaching an art class, wearing an oversized man's shirt turned backwards and covered in flecks of paint, you understand the lengths to which they will go for her.

There are, at least, 36 separate days shown in the movie including his multiple death scenes. There could be more, but it's hard to verify if some moments are simply later in the same day or an entirely different day. Additionally, in the scene where Bill Murray revealed he's a god, he stated, “I have been stabbed, shot, poisoned, frozen, hung, electrocuted, and burned.” Of those the movie only showed electrocution, so that brings it to a base line of 42 accountable days. However, there were many days not shown. We know from the scene when Billy Murray and Andy MacDowell are throwing playing cards into a top hat that it would take, “Six months. Four to five hours a day, and you'd be an expert.” So, we have a bare minimum of six months.

Rushmore plays out as most love triangles do, at least when one of the men is a teenager and the other is in the middle of a midlife crisis. Which is to say: unpredictably. I defy even confirmed Wes Anderson haters not to enjoy Max and Herman's revenge montage, which begins with Max letting live bees into Herman's hotel room and ends with prison. At three minutes long, it's a model of economy. Usually, montages elide scenes that would be dull if seen in full (imagine watching one of Rocky's full training sessions). In this case, however, Anderson takes scenes that would be much longer in any normal film and compresses the hell out of them. And it's not just plot that happens here; we learn a lot about Blume from his that sonovabitch smile when he realizes Max is responsible for his bee stings.

RT @ebertchicago: What the Japanese director is saying to Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation." http://j.mp/bB5JDR

RT @longformorg: Bill Murray grants @fierman a rare interview, explains philosophy of multiple retirements: http://bit.ly/dAhDmF (new @G ...

Super article on the great Bill Murray, from 1988: http://j.mp/aXUyyY