Film

Election

Name: Election
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Released: 1999
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Klein, Jessica Campbell, Mark Harelik

Election is Alexander Payne's satire about a civics teacher who sabotages his school's presidential race because he can't stand the front-running student, triggering a spiral of grudges and moral compromise. It's a comedy that curdles into something bleaker, about ambition, resentment, and how democracy — even in miniature — surfaces the worst in everyone. For fans of pitch-black character studies with no clean heroes.

TMDb rating

6.9

If you liked this

Rushmore1998

Wes Anderson's tale of a precocious, delusional overachiever scheming his way through prep school shares Election's fascination with ambition curdling into farce, wrapped in deadpan whimsy instead of realism.

But Anderson's stylised, symmetrical whimsy might feel too cute if you wanted Election's grittier, meaner realism.

Heathers1989

The original pitch-black high school satire, savage about teenage cruelty and status games, with a script as quotable and merciless as anything Payne wrote.

But Its late-80s tone is broader and more cartoonish, with a body count Election never comes close to.

To Die For1995

Nicole Kidman as a small-town weather-girl whose ambition turns homicidal — a satire cut from the same cloth, skewering American striving with real teeth.

But It's meaner and more nakedly satirical than Election's slow-burn character study, leaving less room to sympathize with anyone.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Boys State2020

Boys State follows actual teenagers building campaigns, smear tactics, and betrayals indistinguishable from Election's fiction — proof Payne's satire was barely exaggerated.

A documentary that plays like Election's nonfiction twin — real teenage boys at a mock political convention, campaigning with genuine ruthlessness, charisma, alliances, and heartbreak.

But There's no writerly hand shaping the ironies; it's messier and less tidy than scripted satire, because real life rarely resolves cleanly.

Sideways2004

Payne's next film, trading high school for wine country but keeping the same eye for self-sabotaging men and the petty resentments that define them.

But It's slower and more melancholic, a meandering road movie rather than Election's tightly wound plot machine.

About Schmidt2002

Another Payne portrait of a man undone by his own smallness — Jack Nicholson as a retiree curdling with resentment, grief, and wounded pride.

But It swaps Election's escalating comic plot for something quieter and sadder; patience is required.

Thank You for Smoking2005

A slick satire about a charismatic tobacco lobbyist who'll say anything to win, sharing Election's fascination with likeable people doing indefensible things.

But It's glossier and more cynical-chic than Payne's grubby realism, with far less emotional undertow.

Mean Girls2004

A more mainstream, quotable take on high school as a battlefield of status and manipulation, with its own ruthless overachiever at the center of it all.

But It's warmer and more forgiving by the end — Election never lets anyone entirely off the hook.

The Descendants2011

Payne again, wringing dark comedy from grief and betrayal in a Hawaiian family drama — the same tonal tightrope, walked over completely different terrain.

But It trades Election's institutional satire for a domestic, personal story; the comedy here is much softer.

Legally Blonde2001

Reese Witherspoon again playing an underestimated overachiever, but here the film roots for her without reservation — a palate-cleansing companion piece to Tracy Flick.

But It's essentially the sunny inverse of Election — no satire, no sting, pure crowd-pleaser.

The Favourite2018

Same engine as Election — two women locked in a vicious, darkly funny contest for power and approval from an authority figure — relocated to Queen Anne's court.

An 18th-century palace intrigue that's every bit as cutthroat and funny as Election's student council race, with two magnificent rivals scheming for a queen's favor.

But The period setting, stylised dialogue, and baroque visuals are a world away from Payne's flat, dowdy American realism.

The Candidate1972

Robert Redford's earnest lawyer is groomed for a Senate run and slowly compromises everything he believes in to win — the same portrait of ambition eating idealism, played straight instead of for laughs.

A prescient, unglamorous look at how campaigning corrodes conviction, decades before Election did it as comedy — the same diagnosis, delivered without a single joke.

But It's a somber '70s drama with none of Payne's dark humor, a colder and more sobering watch entirely.