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Matthew Broderick makes up for years of wet-noodle performances with his low-key but unsparing characterization of Jim McAllister, a high school teacher at George Washington Carver High School in Omaha, Nebraska. Driven by a strange mixture of loathing and lust for pathologically overachieving student Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), McAllister encourages a dim but popular athlete, Paul (Chris Klein from American Pie), to run against her in the election for student-council president. Director-cowriter Alexander Payne (Citizen Ruth) turns this deceptively simple premise into a complex and scathing comedy of ambition, corruption, and desire, all at its most naked and petty. Every scene contains some painfully funny nuance that will make you wince in a mixture of astonishment and empathy. Witherspoon flips effortlessly back and forth from adolescent vulnerability to steely-eyed strength; she's becoming a contemporary Carole Lombard. The movie itself feels like a magnificent throwback to the richly layered comedies of the '30s, which drew their humor from sharply drawn characters and twisting plots instead of explosions of bodily fluids. With a wealth of smart, cutting details, Election rewards multiple viewing. --Bret Fetzer

From The New Yorker
Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), of George Washington Carver High, in Omaha, Nebraska, busts her chops to become the president of the student body. Tracy gathers signatures, bakes cupcakes, uses everyone; she's a cross between Pat and Richard Nixon. Her fair-minded teacher, Mr. McAllister (Matthew Broderick), develops a surprising obsession with Tracy-something about her bland dynamism aggravates his boredom with his own life, and he tries to stop Tracy cold. This remarkable satirical comedy, written by Jim Taylor and directed with deadpan cool by Alexander Payne (the team responsible for the overlooked "Citizen Ruth"), uses the school election as a prism for an analysis of success and failure in American life. There are many surprises and comic turns, some of them rather bitter, and the ending, in its casual way, is stunning. From a novel by Tom Perrotta. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker