I don't know if I would put bottle rocket above Life Aquatic, but I wasn't that big of a fan of either of those two. I think that Tenenbaums is his masterpiece, I doubt that he'll ever be able to match it. I liked Rushmore a lot, but it isn't even close to Tenenbaums, but it is way better than the other two.
Have you seen The Squid and the Whale? He produced it, it's pretty good, I'd put it right below Rushmore on the list.