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

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

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

You've got to laugh at Witherspoon's tightly wound Little Miss Perfect, rising at dawn to do her hair and encase herself in a preppy look before baking cupcakes to pass out at school as vote-getters in her campaign for student council president.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 25, 2007

A dark, insidiously funny satire on the self-involved ways otherwise rational people can allow narrow personal agendas to lead them astray to the point of self-destruction.

| Feb 18, 2006

This remarkable film may be set in high school, but its satiric take on moral corruption, political chicanery, adultery and seduction is anything but juvenile.

| Jan 26, 2006

A sharp, funny, bracingly on-the-money high school satire.

| May 18, 2005

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 19, 2002

The humour may be vicious, but there's also a strong vein of pathos running through the film.

| Mar 5, 2002

Fresh, fast, funny and full of insight!

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

The filmmakers have a great deal of fun at the expense of the pointlessness of high school elections, which aren't just popularity contests but overt wastes of time.

| Jan 1, 2000

So blackly funny it hurts!

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

What is it about high-school overachievers that gets the goat of movie directors these days?

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

The screenplay, by Payne and Jim Taylor, delights!

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2000

With narration from all four of the principles and a script that keeps piling on the moral dilemmas, this never settles for easy moralities.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2000

It showed promise and considerable competence.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

The film never finds a confident tone.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

One of the funniest, shrewdest, smartest movies in recent memory!

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000