For some reason, I had constantly been putting off seeing Election, despite the fact that it seemed to be a film right in my wheelhouse – a dark comedy, directed by Alexander Payne (at this juncture an up-and-coming indie film darling), with a story that blended high school and politics, featuring a great cast. I simply did not get around to watching it, which seemed like a huge mistake, considering how much I actually enjoyed it when I got around to finally viewing it. What I thought would be a conventional high school satire turned out to be far deeper, a film that makes meaningful commentary on important issues that were relevant when this film was made and continue to be sadly relevant to this very day. Election may just be the highest point in Alexander Payne’s career, and it proves to be one of the most subversive, hilarious and ultimately extremely intelligent dark comedies of the 1990s, a film that has an enduring legacy that places it as not only one of the greatest high school films of all time, but one of the most unexpectedly profound statements on politics ever conveyed on film (and trust me, I am as surprised as you are about that, but its true). In short, Election is a terrific film and one I am bitterly disappointed that I didn’t watch sooner because I genuinely loved it for a number of reasons.

Election is set at George Washington Carver High School in Omaha, Nebraska. Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) is a longtime teacher who has a very happy disposition and is comfortable in his life. He is happily married and is great at his job, being embraced by student and teacher alike at the high school. He is also the facilitator of the school’s student body president event, and the frontrunner (in actuality, the only runner) is Tracy Flick, an over-earnest candidate who is running unopposed as a candidate for student body president. Her over-eagerness and annoying personality causes McAllister to grow weary of her overly enthusiastic antics and he manages to convince another student, popular football jock Paul Metzler (Chris Klein) to run alongside Tracy, figuring that his popularity and lovably dull personality will win over students, many of which are growing increasingly weary of Tracy’s over-zealous attempts to gain their votes. Meanwhile, Paul’s sister, Tammy (Jessica Campbell) is in love with her best friend Lisa (Frankie Ingrassia), who sees their love as simply “experimenting” and decides to start dating Paul. Taking revenge on her former best friend, Tammy decides to run for student body president as well, showing herself to be extremely popular through her anti-establishment rhetoric that eclipses the campaigns of Tracy and Paul, causing far more panic throughout the school than one would normally expect. All of this results in a tense, volatile atmosphere that could not be more hilarious or scathing.

There has always been something so unconventionally charming about Matthew Broderick, from his breakout performance in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off to the present day, where he occupies a position as a consistently great character actor. In some ways, his performance in Election seems like a natural remedy to the aforementioned performance as Ferris Bueller, playing a very conventional, albeit secretly rebellious, authoritarian figure who abides by the conventions of the school that he has so graciously served at for over a decade, while still understanding that he needs to take action to prevent his environment from descending into frantic anarchy in itself, even if his actions do cause tensions to heighten and allow chaos to run rampant. Broderick is terrific in the film, finding the perfect balance between the archetypal “square” teacher who follows procedure and conventions in order to retain order, as well as his growing rebelliousness, showing his personal acts of defiance in favor of his own visceral, carnal desires and urges, such as cheating on his wife and crushing the dreams of an irritating, but innocent, young woman who did her best to achieve her dream, only to have it taken away from her. Its a great performance from Broderick, who manages to play off his Ferris Bueller personality perfectly, imbuing the character with almost contradictory qualities that show his range while still being a pleasant commentary on the performance that made his career and defined him as an actor. Broderick may have progressed to the point where he is far less of a leading man than he was positioned to be in the earlier days of his career, but he has also proven himself to be consistent regardless of the role, and Election is quite simply another fantastic turn from a great actor, who lends the necessary emotional gravitas to the performance. I am surprised that Broderick has not worked with Payne since, considering he is one of the few actors who seems perfectly fitting for Payne’s sensibilities as a writer and director.

Election also proved to be the breakthrough role for Reese Witherspoon, and it may just be the best Witherspoon has ever been. Tracy Flick is nothing less than a despicable character, and her sleazy, over-zealous pursuit of what she considers her destiny is bound to position her as inherently unlikable, despite the fact that she is shown to be hard-working, dedicated and driven. The film constructs her as an antagonistic presence, and Witherspoon does her very best impression of a peppy, over-enthusiastic high school student to make her just unbearably annoying, countering her pleasant public persona with a streak of pure evil, showing her own manipulative tactics to get ahead. Witherspoon is so good, and considering her career of playing endearingly likable, pleasant characters, to see her in such a villainous role is splendid, and makes me wish Witherspoon would be given complex characters such as Tracy Flick more often, allowing her to play a morally-ambiguous, complex and conflicted individual. Election is a film about normal individuals doing terrible things, and by the end of the film, Tracy is shown to be a deeply despicable character, yet one that clearly did not do anything wrong other than pursuing her own dreams. Arguably, she is the character that ends up the most successful, which is far more frustrating than it should have been, considering she is made out to be an awful, hateful character that the audience has nothing but disdain for. It is all due to Witherspoon’s nuanced performance of the character, elevating her far more than I was expecting her to be.

There are two kinds of satire present in Election that makes it far more complex than it initially seems, namely being a satire of high school comedies (the likes of which Broderick, in his earlier career as a member of the “Brat Pack”, was a part of) as well as being a scathing commentary on politics, relating the two very different subjects to bring out the pettiness that exists in both, how bullying can persist in politics, and how manipulation can take control even in something as inconsequential as a  student body election in a small high school in Omaha, Nebraska. Payne, through this film, comments directly on how petty politics can be, and how it can appear to be even more juvenile than a high school election. There is an absurdity here, where everything is taken so seriously, it cannot be considered anything less than a scathingly brilliant commentary on the subject matter. The heightened intensity just adds to the inherent hilarity, and makes Election something truly terrific, being able to comment directly on politics and high school, relating the two in an acidic and sardonic manner that is simply brilliant.

More than this, not only is Election a highly-successful blend of satires, it is also a very unconventional comedy, and it finds its wings through something that is rarely done in films (mainly because it is difficult to convey correctly) – it does not approach the plot as a comedy, but rather constructs it as something more akin to a tragedy. Election is a hilarious film, but it manages this by combining the tragic elements of the story (the downfall of characters, unfortunate manipulations, and existential crises) with pure, unadulterated absurdity. This results in a film that is wonderfully dark, filled with moments of pure frustration at seeing characters relentlessly fail, creating an environment that is bleak but hilarious. Election is not a conventional comedy, and it manages to be far darker than it seems. I was actually taken aback by how bleak this film actually was, because there is a complete lack of redemption, and characters are not given any satisfying resolution. Election succeeds at hiding its desolate core in a film that appears to be far funnier than the subject matter would have you believe.

I thought Election was a terrific film – it was hilarious and very unconventional, and it featured absolutely astonishing performances from its cast, particularly Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon. It has the sardonic wit that Alexander Payne was known for, especially in the early stages of his career. It is a film that flows so well, with the effortlessly endearing sarcasm that is not often conveyed in films. It succeeds on a number of fronts, and manages to be a film that makes some very serious statements, in a way that is irresistible, hilarious and ultimately a fantastic satire. It is a film that is not exactly obscure but is still far too underappreciated, and it is certainly one of the best statements on both the high school mentality and the politically-driven world and the pettiness that exists in both, and unfortunately endures to this day. As much as I like Alexander Payne, he needs to return to making bold films like Election, because this is truly a brilliant satire and one of the most unexpectedly complex comedy films of the 1990s.