To modern eyes, it looks like he’s mad at a teenage girl for getting molested by his friend- something that, through a contemporary lens, makes Jim look a lot more evil than he did 25 years ago (25th anniversary)

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 20, 2024

The cast is fun and quirky, but Witherspoon really stands out. She gives a perfect performance.

| Jan 6, 2023

A movie of unexpected savagery and caustic wit.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 18, 2021

[It] remains scarily relevant and on-the-nose.

| May 10, 2021

The young Reese Witherspoon leads with her determined chin as single-minded go-getter Tracy Flick...

| Nov 10, 2020

A remnant from the provocative period of Alexander Payne, Election is as deviously potent now as it was at the time of its release.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 26, 2020

Broderick gives a wonderfully nebbishy performance, and the filmmakers do a fine job of using visual cues to define the smallness of his world.

| Sep 30, 2019

Suffers from a tyrannical sameness of tone where Payne doesn't trust his audience to 'get' the crashing subtext, so he batters them over the head with it for nearly two hours

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 8, 2018

Alexander Payne's Election remains one of the best political satire comedies of all time.

| Nov 6, 2018

An annihilating satire of the American experience, Election has never really been equaled for sheer truth-telling about the crushing awfulness of high school, which sets us up for the rotten lives we're going to live thereafter.

| Oct 27, 2018

The lack of emotion and seriousness with which some of his characters behave is surprisingly amusing. It's like Wes Anderson without the twee set designs and world-building.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Mar 3, 2018

The comedy may not resonate as deeply as the well-named Payne intends, but between Witherspoon's exuberant solipsism and Broderick's talent for absorbing massive humiliation, the chuckles keep coming like poisoned darts.

| Mar 3, 2018

Payne and Taylor are equal opportunity satirists and their sly wit dismantles everything from high school culture to suburban complacency.

| Dec 17, 2011

This clever, biting high-school satire is arguably Alexander Payne's most original and accomplished film (and so far he has made only good pictures).

| Original Score: A | Aug 17, 2011

Dark high school comedy is best for older teens.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 2, 2011

Surprise! An intelligent, well-written high school story that offers some real ideas to chew on, rather than simply wallowing in nubile flesh.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 24, 2010

The treatment of this touchy material is impressive, neither gratuitous nor mincing, but this 1999 satirical comedy doesn't really go anywhere.

| Aug 24, 2010

An instant classic, Alexander Payne's 1999 high school comedy seems even more scathing now that we're losing control of our own election machinery.

| Aug 24, 2010

Election at first has the feel of a simple work. But don't let that fool you; it's a complex, deep tale.

| Aug 24, 2010

Took the sleaze of the teen comedy and spun it into something that's both hugely entertaining and extremely insightful.

| Feb 3, 2009