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| Directed by Alexander Payne; Starring Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Klein, Jessica Campbell, Mark Harelik, Phil Reeves, Molly Hagan, Delaney Driscoll, Colleen Camp, Frankie Ingrassia, Matt Malloy, Jeanine Jackson, and Holmes Osborne |
Earlier this year I found a terrific little treat in Rushmore, which turned out getting the seventh spot on my 1998 top ten list. It was a high-school set film that had heart and deserved a great viewing audience. But it was too smart for its own good. It got an R rating and everything went down hill from there. Adults shunned it as a teen film, and teenagers thought it seemed too adult. Instead Message in a Bottle and She’s All That became hits. I have a feeling that this may very well be the future for Election. It too is smart, eccentric, interesting, and set in an unappreciative age group, assets that could prove to be debits.
Election is a narrative piece surrounding four characters. The first is Tracy Flick (Witherspoon) who is running on her own for the Senior Class President. Like Rushmore’s Max Fischer, her many interests and achievements in school have kept her from making an achievement in friends (for Fischer, it was grades). Everything is fine in her campaign until the only teacher that cannot stand her, Jim McAllister (Broderick), schemes to stop her from winning. So enters Paul Metzler (Klien), the dim-witted football player shot down by a skiing accident. Then in retaliation of his new relationship with her ex-lover, his sister Tracey (Campbell) enters the race as an anti-school government advocate. The war has now set stage and only one person can fall: Jim McAllister.
The cast is terrific, but most thanks to this film can go to its biting screenplay. I was surprised how frank it was with many adult themes. I also liked the freedom from cliche that it goes for. The jock character is much more three dimensional in this film, not the normal Hollywood carbon copy athlete seen in films like Varsity Blues (another MTV Production). The director also gets points for not simply taking a straight forward direction as most comedy directors do. Payne, who’s previous work includes the overrated Citizen Ruth, is in the same vein as Rushmore director Wes Anderson.
I’ve been racking my brain for the past two days on whether this is the best film so far this year, edging out The Matrix. In the end, I decided that Election is the best comedy and the best of the summer so far, but The Matrix will retain its current title.
