Election
"Election" with Reese Witherspoon, Matthew Broderick and Chris Klein. (And Kansas Citian Holmes Osborne) Written by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor from a novel by Tom Perrotta, directed by Alexander Payne. MPAA rated R for strong sexuality, crass sex-related dialogue and language, and a scene of drug use. Run time 105 minutes.
From the glamour moovie capital of America - Omaha, Nebraska - comes Alexander Payne's epic of high school angst, ambition, lust and greed, "Election". You may remember Payne's other feature, the quirky socio-political satire, "Citizen Ruth", in which Laura Dern plays a pregnant, unrepentant, aerosol huffing addict. Payne uses softer characters and has grown up a lot with "Election", but this is not to say this moovie's any brighter or less satirical. Far from it. "Election" is dark, funny and a more than a bit troubling.
Reese Witherspoon (Pleasantville) is at her best to date as Tracy Flick, a high school student with a notch on her belt for every possible scholastic achievement save one - school president. Tracy is the goody-two-shoes, shiny faced, squeaky clean overachiever seemingly destined for greatness, or at least high maintenance for the rest of her life. So, when Tracy wants something, it seems only right and natural that she gets what she wants. Out come the posterboard and construction paper, up go the signs and banners, petitions get signed, and her perky sweet smile radiates through the halls of adolescent knowledge. When things don't go her way, Tracy shows her true, sociopathic underpinnings. The summit of female adolescent achievement is a lonely and pathetic place. Everybody knows a Tracy Flick.
Providing the contrast for Tracy is Paul Metzler, (newcomer Chris Klein) the totally clueless, stereotypical dumb jock that ends up being Tracy's opponent in the school election. Paul has no earthly idea how or why he got convinced to run for president in the first place, nor what he'd do if he actually won. Everybody knows a Paul Metzler.
Matthew Broderick (The Road to Wellville, Godzilla) is Jim McAllister, a plain vanilla guy. His students like him. He's a family man and a dedicated teacher. He's also a little naive, and inwardly, McAllister is not a very happy person. Mr. McAllister just happens to be the faculty sponsor of the school elections. There's a little Ferris Bueller left in Broderick - there probably always will be - and you sense his boredom with doing the right thing every day. He listens a little too closely to the voices in his head, which insist that he do some not-so-nice things. He does and his ordinary life comes to an abrupt halt, a vivid reminder for all of us that "One 'Oh Shit!' wipes out all the gold stars!". It's homage to the Roadrunner/Coyote genre - just about the time McAllister comes sliding to a full stop, the Acme Rocket Sled (Patent Pending) he's strapped to belches to life long enough to sling him to the moon, and then explodes, leaving him all charred and beagle-eyed at the center of a crater full of smoking coyote fur. He not only stops doing the right thing, he does everything wrong at once. Everybody knows a Jim McAllister.
This moovie is about lust and greed, ambition and human weakness, wrapped around a tight story about high school life. It's cleverly written, and expertly assembled. It's witty, perverse, comic and tragic. "Election" succeeds in being a high school mini-chronicle, but, by reflecting our own weaknesses in the faces of the characters, becomes a morality play and a comment on current affairs and life in the 90's. I hope Alexander Payne can hold onto this giddy, voyeuristic sense of irony for future efforts. I predict you'll see a lot more from him.
It's not for everybody, but for my tastes in dark satire, this moovie is just about perfect.
I gave "Election" four over-ambitious apple-cheeked Nebraska cows.
From the glamour moovie capital of America - Omaha, Nebraska - comes Alexander Payne's epic of high school angst, ambition, lust and greed, "Election". You may remember Payne's other feature, the quirky socio-political satire, "Citizen Ruth", in which Laura Dern plays a pregnant, unrepentant, aerosol huffing addict. Payne uses softer characters and has grown up a lot with "Election", but this is not to say this moovie's any brighter or less satirical. Far from it. "Election" is dark, funny and a more than a bit troubling.
Reese Witherspoon (Pleasantville) is at her best to date as Tracy Flick, a high school student with a notch on her belt for every possible scholastic achievement save one - school president. Tracy is the goody-two-shoes, shiny faced, squeaky clean overachiever seemingly destined for greatness, or at least high maintenance for the rest of her life. So, when Tracy wants something, it seems only right and natural that she gets what she wants. Out come the posterboard and construction paper, up go the signs and banners, petitions get signed, and her perky sweet smile radiates through the halls of adolescent knowledge. When things don't go her way, Tracy shows her true, sociopathic underpinnings. The summit of female adolescent achievement is a lonely and pathetic place. Everybody knows a Tracy Flick.
Providing the contrast for Tracy is Paul Metzler, (newcomer Chris Klein) the totally clueless, stereotypical dumb jock that ends up being Tracy's opponent in the school election. Paul has no earthly idea how or why he got convinced to run for president in the first place, nor what he'd do if he actually won. Everybody knows a Paul Metzler.
Matthew Broderick (The Road to Wellville, Godzilla) is Jim McAllister, a plain vanilla guy. His students like him. He's a family man and a dedicated teacher. He's also a little naive, and inwardly, McAllister is not a very happy person. Mr. McAllister just happens to be the faculty sponsor of the school elections. There's a little Ferris Bueller left in Broderick - there probably always will be - and you sense his boredom with doing the right thing every day. He listens a little too closely to the voices in his head, which insist that he do some not-so-nice things. He does and his ordinary life comes to an abrupt halt, a vivid reminder for all of us that "One 'Oh Shit!' wipes out all the gold stars!". It's homage to the Roadrunner/Coyote genre - just about the time McAllister comes sliding to a full stop, the Acme Rocket Sled (Patent Pending) he's strapped to belches to life long enough to sling him to the moon, and then explodes, leaving him all charred and beagle-eyed at the center of a crater full of smoking coyote fur. He not only stops doing the right thing, he does everything wrong at once. Everybody knows a Jim McAllister.
This moovie is about lust and greed, ambition and human weakness, wrapped around a tight story about high school life. It's cleverly written, and expertly assembled. It's witty, perverse, comic and tragic. "Election" succeeds in being a high school mini-chronicle, but, by reflecting our own weaknesses in the faces of the characters, becomes a morality play and a comment on current affairs and life in the 90's. I hope Alexander Payne can hold onto this giddy, voyeuristic sense of irony for future efforts. I predict you'll see a lot more from him.
It's not for everybody, but for my tastes in dark satire, this moovie is just about perfect.
I gave "Election" four over-ambitious apple-cheeked Nebraska cows.