"Say it together with me, class. Don't be shy. Penis, penis, penis, vagina, vagina, vagina," says the young and enthusiastic sexual education teacher at the local high school. 
        Such irreverent exuberance fills the new Paramount Pictures film, Varsity Blues, which premiered on January 15. The movie adroitly explores the American obsession with the realm of sports. It examines and critiques the impact of athletics on the lives of ordinary people in West Canaan, Texas, which serves as a caricature of the "picture-perfect" small town. West Canaan is a place where everybody knows your name, a place where everyone in town has nothing better to do each weekend than go to the local high school football game, a place where the girls flutter at every word of the high school quarterback.

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Scaling Rushmore
Rushmore

Bill Murray is the best reason to see Rushmore, the story of fifteen-year-old Max (Jason Schwartzman) and his trials and tribulations as a 10th grader at an ivy covered boarding school called Rushmore Academy. Murray's presence might lead the unwary viewer to expect an all out bust a gut, giggles and tears comedy -- a la Caddyshack and Ghostbusters.  But Rushmore  is something else entirely: an extremely clever, extremely peculiar story of two immature people fighting over a girl. It veers between comedy and a dark, brooding and determinedly grim perspective on the world. war, and worst of all, they think of national interests before human rights.

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