When you're cousins with Nicolas Cage and nephew to Francis Ford Coppola, getting a break in the film industry is hardly going to be too much of a challenge. Fortunately for Jason Schwartzman his acting more than stands up to scrutiny even when examined under the light of nepotism. In Rushmore, Wes Anderson's sophomore film in which his idiosyncratic visual style truly started to emerge, Schwartzman plays Max Fischer, a strangely mannered teenager with a passion for just about everything conceivable who strikes up a tentative friendship with local industrialist Herman Blume (Bill Murray, returning to form after years in the wilderness). Schwartzman nails the offbeat teenage angst and held his own in the company of Murray - indeed, it's their chemistry which makes Rushmore one of the greatest moves of the 90s. Schwartzman has largely stuck to his high quality independent cinema roots in the years since, with Listen Up, Philip one of last year's best comedies.
