Review of Election (1999) by Patrick M — 03 Jun 2013

"Election" is a 1999 american black comedy film about a presidential election race in high school directed by Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Descendants).

Mr. McAllister (Matthew Broderick) is a caring high school teacher who is also addicted to porn, he's terrified when he finds out that Tracy (Reese Witherspoon), a perfectionist senior who slept with his co-worker/best friend for which he was fired and divorced by his wife, is running for student body president. He persuades students to run against her.

"Election" starts out with a perfect opening of character introductions, we get to know all of them pretty well from each point of view. Matthew Broderick's character gives a refreshing take on high school films, playing a character similar to Kevin Spacey's Lester Burnham in "American Beauty", while Reese Witherspoon plays the overachieving villain that has Navajo Joe played every time she gets angry or startled. Chris Klein (American Pie) is also great as the sensitive jock Mr. McAllister persuades to run for president.

There are a lot of memorable characters and scenes like one involving a bee sting and another where a character gives a speech you wouldn't see coming. Its Alexander Payne on his fun side, more like "The Descendants" and less like "About Schmidt". Don't expect to see something like Glee, this is an MTV film, when MTV used to make funny movies like "Jackass: The Movie" and "Beavis and Butt-head Do America".

"Election" deserves more attention, its one of my favorite high school movies and one of the best movies to come out in 1999. By the way, I love the ending, it gets me every time.

I'd recommend it to people who like either "The Royal Tenenbaums", "Dazed and Confused", "The Kids are All Right", "Rushmore", or any Jason Reitman movie.