Election (1999) - Payne's high school politics dramedy

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Nebraska Movie of the Year 

 

Matthew Broderick looks disgruntled, caught inside the excited mouth of Reese Witherspoon on this poster for Alexander Payne's Election

High school teacher Jim McAllister has a beef with his over-achiever student Tracy Flick, who is running for student president, so he engages an opposing candidate.

Election is an MTV-produced, fast-edited and funny movie, the third feature from Nebraskan master co-writer-director Alexander Payne (The Descendants (2011)).
Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line (2005)) glows as comedienne as young Flick, while Matthew Broderick (The Night We Never Met (1993)) accepts the role of McAllister, which, according to your temperament, serves as a tongue-in-cheek reference to his legendary turn as rebellious high school student in John Hughes' masterpiece Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), or as a part that throws sly vitriol on this glorious past. - For me, seeing one of the heroes of my youth tackle this bitter, grownup high school teacher did take some of the joy out of Election from me.
It is still a clever tragicomic movie with a gender-focused sting of societal criticism. Payne co-wrote the script with Jim Taylor (Sideways (2004)), based on Tom Perrotta's (Little Children (2004)) same-titled 1998 novel.

Related posts:
 

Alexander Payne: 2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]   
Nebraska (2013) or, Father and Son
Top 10: The best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
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The Descendants (2011) - Payne and Clooney score with a Hawaiian story of heartbreak, loss and family 
About Schmidt (2002) or, Dear Ndugu ...

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $
Box office: 14.9 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertain - but looks like a big to huge flop
[Election was released April 23 and runs 102 minutes. Filming took place from July 1998 - February 1999 in Nebraska, Ohio and New York. The film was released theatrically in 16 countries in total, but only the North American gross is made public. It opened #37 in 6 theaters to 119k $ and peaked at #5 in 827 theaters. The film was Oscar-nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay, lost to John Irving's screenplay for The Cider House Rules. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe, won a National Board of Review award "for excellence in filmmaking" and 3 Independent Spirit Awards, out of 5 nominations. Election is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.8 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]


What do you think of Election?