Election

Director: Alexander Payne, Alexander Payne

1999 / 103min / 35mm

There’s never been a more ruthless screen politician than Tracy Flick, the single-minded sociopath at the center Election, directed and co-written by Alexander Payne, which takes us blow-by-blow through a truly brutal student council election in suburban Omaha--Payne's hometown--that threatens to destroy the lives of both the teenage candidates and the teacher responsible for counting the votes (an increasingly pathetic Matthew Broderick). Payne and Jim Taylor's Oscar-nominated script is witty and pitiless, a black comedy that satirizes both American presidential politics and high school drama, while recognizing that the latter is really just a dress rehearsal for the former.