Election Reviewed by Bruce Cantwell All right, I certainly have no use revisiting high school at my age but when I discovered that Alexander Payne (Citizen Ruth) was directing this little field trip into the world of student government politics, I bought my permission slip. Much to my relief, the heart of this film isn't the nauseatingly overdone world of teenage interpersonal relationships but the uneasy interaction between adults and those they're trying to usher into adulthood, hopefully while keeping a safe distance. That's the dilemma facing Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) an outstanding teacher who loves what he does and wants to make a difference in his students' lives. One student in particular, unopposed class president candidate Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) threatens to rock Jim's world. Former student government faculty advisor Dave Novotny (Mark Harelik) was the last to tangle with Tracy Flick's ambition and ended up careerless and divorced.   This little escapade has left a bad taste in Jim's mouth and though he's not sure what to do, he doesn't want Tracy to add class presidency to her prissy little résumé without some honest competition. Jim convinces the injured high school football hero Paul Metzler (Chris Klein) to give it the old varsity try in order to give the students a fair chance to exercise their democratic rights. Paul's lesbian sister Tammy (Jessica Campbell) joins the contest to spite her brother for stealing her girlfriend. Though the subject matter here is infinitely safer than what Payne tackled in Citizen Ruth, the comedy here has a fresh and sometimes raunchy edge reminiscent of the tone that Animal House brought to teen comedy in its day. It's well worth a look as will be Payne's next project.

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