Precocious Students (Rushmore and Election): We're Here for the Extracurriculars

This week we discussed two films about precocious high school students that came out in 1998 and 1999, which were both second features made by precocious indie filmmakers: Wes Anderson's Rushmore and Alexander Payne's Election. These films have a lot in common, but they also have very different takes on the adolescent / mid-life crisis dynamics they stir up.

We also listen to a call-in from Johanna Isaacson about Slumber Party Massacre, as we continue looking at representations of school in film.

Spoilers: bee sting sequences, Bueller... Bueller..., American Beauty, justice for Margaret Yang, unnecessary aquariums, Alexander Payne and teenage girls, fencing clubs, hand jobs and fingering, women who smoke cigarettes in Wes Anderson films, the power of theater (again), please cast Dave in another Dick Wolf production.

Follow us @genrerevealpod on Instagram and Twitter, and email us at [email protected] with your thoughts, suggestions, guest requests, and genre reveals.

Follow Madeline @la_louve_rouge_ on Twitter and Instagram.

Follow Dave @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram, and listen to his other podcast, This Is Your Afterlife.

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Music by Kirk Rawlings from Courtesy and beige on beige

Cover art by Tuli Lane-McKinley