Election (1999)
- Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Rating IMDb: 72
- Year: 1999
- Duration: 1:43
Summaries
A high school teacher meets his match in an over-achieving student politician.
The high school Class President election is approaching and it looks like Tracy Flick is going to win, unopposed. However, teacher Jim McAllister has other plans. He convinces jock Paul Metzler to run, sparking off an interesting chain of events.
Perky, overachieving high schooler Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) gets on the nerves of social-studies teacher Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) to begin with, but after she launches her campaign for student-body president and his personal life starts to fall apart, things spiral out of control. In Alexander Payne's satire Election, the teacher becomes unhealthily obsessed with cutting his student down to size, covertly backing a spoiler candidate to stop her from steamrolling to victory, and putting in motion a series of dirty tricks and reckless promises with uncanny real-world political parallels. Adapting a then-unpublished novel by Tom Perrotta, Payne grounds the absurdity of his central dynamic in the recognizable-the setting is his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, and the accomplished cast is rounded out with nonprofessionals-and distills his closely observed take on deeply flawed humanity to its bitter but stealthily sympathetic essence.
Tracy Flick is running unopposed for this year's high school student election. But school civics teacher Jim McAllister has a different plan. Partly to establish a more democratic election, and partly to satisfy some deep personal anger toward Tracy, Jim talks popular varsity football player Paul Metzler to run for president as well. Chaos ensues.
Jim McAllister is a Social Studies teacher at Carver High. A student of his, Tracy Flick, tends to rub him the wrong way. Flick, a loner and ambitious girl, decides to run for class president. McAllister convinces football player Paul to run against her. His lesbian sister Tammy joins the election after her girlfriend starts going out with Paul. During the campaigns, Tracy plays dirty, plying students with muffins and gum. Tammy adopts an anarchist attitude that the student body responds to. Paul has few skills to offer the position. Meanwhile, McAllister's going through a bad time with his wife.
Tracy Flick is the most driven student at Carver High, who just happens to be having an affair with one of her teachers. Another teacher--Mr. McAllister--is having an affair with his wife's best friend. Student Elections are under way, when Mr. McAllister persuades football jock Paul to run against Flick for his own pleasure. Flick, of course, is mortified that Paul is even trying to compete. Tammy, Paul's lesbian sister who got dumped by her girlfriend to go with Paul, decides that running against her brother is the best revenge. Who will win the election this year?