Is there anything imbued with such false importance, anything as piddling, as a student government election? Any campaign where the biggest issue is whether to switch the lunch menu from tater tots to French fries isn't exactly worthy of comparisons to Kennedy-Nixon. And that's the joke in Election, a dark, brutally funny satire about the back-stabbing, conniving ruthlessness and sheer pettiness that surrounds the race for Student Body President of one Omaha, Nebraska high school.

Matthew Broderick stars as Mr. McAllister, a history teacher and the faculty advisor to the student government. He's pitted against psychotically overachieving senior Tracy Flick, played by Pleasantville's Reese Witherspoon in a brilliant comic performance that can only be described as "possessed."

Being President is seemingly the most important thing in Tracy Flick's entire world, and it looks like nothing will stop her; she's running unopposed. But Mr. M has it out for Tracy since she ended-up costing another teacher, who was also his best friend, his job. So, he drafts popular jock, Paul Metzler (played by Keanu Reeves-in-training Chris Klein), to enter the race and bring Tracy down. Paul's lesbian sister then starts her own apathy-driven campaign, and things get really nasty.

Broderick, making-up for his performance in Godzilla, has come full circle. Here he's playing the Anti-Ferris Bueller. More accurately, he's what would happen if Ferris Bueller grew-up and became a high school teacher. He's still sneaky and manipulative, but instead of being cool, these attributes simply make him that much more pathetic. Director Alexander Payne deserves credit for allowing the film's nominal hero to be so flawed. The movie, in fact, manages to have contempt for every single one of its characters, without making them all totally unwatchable. Payne also finds new ways to make us laugh.

Here is a movie that dares to shatter the John Hughes Formula of high school comedy. The teachers are not one-dimensional villains. The kids look like kids, not like 35-year olds. And nobody asks anybody to the prom. Election is as smart and original as other recent high school comedies like Never Been Kissed are not. It's a must see.

(c) Copyright 1999