Paramount Pictures, Rated R
Directed by Alexander Payne
Written by Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor based on the novel by Tom Perrotta

In a year full of frivolous unoriginal high school movies that are part John Hughes, part Greek tragedy, finally comes a movie that is, yes, something of a tragedy but one of the best black comedies of the decade and completly original to boot.
Reese Witherspoon tops herself here as Tracy Flick, an overachiever hellbent on being elected Student Council president. Matthew Broderick has one of his best career performances as well as Jim McAllister, a teacher who both admires and despises Tracy and convinces Paul (Chris Klein, in an impressive debut), a dumb jock, to run against her. Jessica Campbell has a very convincing role as Paul's rebellious sister who begins late in the race (many believe the novel this is based on was modeled after the 1992 presidential election). Tracy Flick joins Max Fischer as two of the best comedic (and quite similar... but different enough) film characters of the year. The "Amazon war cry" whenever Tracy gets upset is brilliant as are the use of freeze frames which easily rival last year's freeze-frame-fest Out of Sight. Keep a look out for parodies of Psycho and The Godfather (the latter is much more subtle).
This election happens to take place at the same time Jim's life is slowly falling apart and this film can in my opinion be described as not just black comedy, but pure comedy. Many have theorized that comedy comes from the misery of others and this movie has misery to spare. Solid laughs all around, dynamite performances, fantastic cinematography - I could go on. The clever and biting script points out subtly that only sex and revenge are the motives for anyone in this film except for Paul. Election seems to hypothesize that only those blissfully unaware of the world's pressure to strive for the top will be the only ones to live happy lives. Not the message one would receive from an Adam Sandler movie, but not nearly as depressing as a Todd Solondz movie either.
Fair warning: the movie is very much so rated R and it is certainly not intended for the high school audience as it would mostly just go over their heads. If you remember high school and have the guts, this movie is well-worth it and then some. ****