Win This 'Election'

MTV Films--just say the words and you can hear the collective groans of film fans everywhere. Whether it's meaningless tripe like the football snooze VARSITY BLUES or the really stupid JOE'S APARTMENT, the company's short history in cinema has already made it infamous. It's just about the last place you'd expect an intelligent, witty comedy to appear.

And yet the best comedy of 1999 -- and maybe the best in many a year -- burst forth from MTV Films onto unsuspecting megaplexes everywhere. ELECTION, like HEATHERS before it, is a deliciously wicked look at high school identity. Watching the many intelligent, witty pleasures of ELECTION makes the recent spate of teen comedies (AMERICAN PIE, LOSER, etc.) seem even weaker than they actually were. The film marks the coming of age of Reese Witherspoon as a major actress, and the first truly important work of the previously banal Matthew Broderick.

Let's not give all the credit to MTV, though...the true genius behind this work is Alexander Payne, the director/screenwriter who burst into the small film market in 1996 with CITIZEN RUTH. RUTH was a take-no-prisoners comic take on the abortion issue, a smartly funny film that skewered both sides of the debate without ever demeaning the issue itself or its seriousness.

What CITIZEN RUTH did for abortion, ELECTION does for high school angst. It sends up student-government politics while also probing the larger issues of honesty, fidelity, and fanaticism.

Class President candidate Tracy Flick, a character in all senses of the word, comes gloriously to life through Reese Witherspoon, the former teen movie queen who should catapult into better roles and films after this movie. Tracy is a desperate overachiever who is positioning herself to become President of the student body; running unopposed, her fanatic dreams of educational politics are destined to be a reality.

Enter Mr. M (Broderick), a teacher frustrated with the Tracy Flicks of the world. He enlists the slightly-dumb, ultra-sweet jock Paul Metzler (Chris Klein) to run against her. The jock, in turn, unknowingly begins to date his sister's lesbian girlfriend, and in a fit of slacker revenge, the sister ALSO runs. The stage is set for a three-way collision that will forever alter the lives of all involved.

Made on a shoestring budget, Mr. Payne film never cuts corners in story, character, plot, or talent. It's a cornucopia of jaded memories, especially those familiar ones of being the outsider in your high school. You'll find yourself cackling out loud and joining in the coup d'ecole. And whenever you think you have a handle on the movie's message, Payne throws a curveball that takes you into Broderick's failing marriage or Witherspoon's freaky homelife.

ELECTION is a can't-miss comedy. Find it, see it, and revel in the fun.