Cast Your Vote For Alexander Payne's Best Move, Election

Matthew Broderick is an actor of stage and screen known for playing nice protagonists that your average moviegoer can easily root for. It's a trait of his that worked so well in Ferris Bueller's Day Off that people are still wearing "Save Ferris" T-Shirts all these years lost while the likes of The Lion King and Torch Song Trilogy also made strong use of his endearing nature. Yes, Broderick is talented at playing likable individuals but as Jimmy Stewart showed multiple times in his career, sometimes there's nothing more fun to watch than actors known for playing nice people going full-on creepy asshole. Broderick got to flex those kinds of antagonistic muscles with Alexander Payne's 1999 motion picture Election.


Broderick got to dabble in his darker side with Jim McAllister, a High School teacher whose super dedicated to his job in every way you can think of. Combine that steady job with the fact that he's got a loving wife and a swell house and you'd think McAllister's life was perfect. But things start to go awry in his life as he becomes more and more obsessed with a student of his by the name of Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon). Tracy does everything. Like, literally, everything. She's in debate, theater, sports, if there's an extracurricular activity at this school, she's probably involved in it in some way shape or form. But her real passion is school politics and it's here that she's eager to win the title of Class President unopposed yet again.

McAllister becomes fixated on taking down Flick a peg and soon conspires to get people to run against her in this campaign, including Paul Metzler (Chris Klein) and Paul's sister Tammy (Jessica Campbell). Mayhem ensures as Tracy tries her best to maintain her previously-assured victory while McAllister tries to take down Tracy anyway he can while dealing with complex romantic feelings he has for his next-door neighbor. We get to follow all these stories through an assortment of perspectives ranging from McAllister to Flick to both Metzler kids. Payne and Jim Taylor's script leapfrogs from one uniquely rendered outlook to the next while these shifts between characters allow editor Keven Tent a chance to really shine.

The editing in Election is electric with energy, Tent's editing keeps things moving at a reasonable clip and informs the aesthetic of the entire project. Election as a whole is informed by such consistently-moving though never hyperactive pacing, this is a film utterly jolting with life as it chronicles this constantly chaotic school election. Characters like Tracy Flick never stop to catch their breath and neirder does the feature film she inhabits. Jokes fly at one with such a rapid pace that it can take a moment to fully comprehend what gag just transpired on-screen. It's a wonder that Payne could execute the story of eight-inches-tall Matt Damon so stagnantly yet lend such energy to his direction of a film about a High School election, but at least his lively direction works like dynamite for Election.

Vivaciousness extends to the use of voice-over in the film. Personal background information on the characters could end up being a slog to get through but Election chooses to convey the inner thoughts of the characters through enjoyable voice-over narration that sees the assorted actors digging their teeth into delightful pieces of dialogue that illuminate what exactly motivates the roles they're inhabiting. The interactions between on-screen visuals and voice-over's from the character is also a lot of fun, especially in regards to the intentional dissonance between the scummy on-screen behavior Broderick's character and his voice-over dialogue, the latter element constantly trying to frame him as the sort of do-gooder that Matthew Broderick might portray in a typical film role.

It's highly amusing to hear McAllister's narration be so oblivious to the man's obvious problems with both proactive women and considering the perspective of other people, especially since Broderick is so good at delivering the "woe-is-me" voice-over work. For her part, Reese Witherspoon is equally impressive in the part of Tracy Flick as she delivers the sort of knockout performance bursting at the seams with personality. Just the way Witherspoon composes herself when walking around as Tracy Flick convincingly communicates the idea that this woman totally can do anything she puts her mind to. Chris Klein also turns out to be a riot in a supporting role as the wholesome but dim-witted Paul Metzler. Though Election gives him plenty of choice comedic lines, it is worth noting that none of Klein's amusing moments of humor here can compare to his hysterical line deliveries in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.