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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Election
Paramount Pictures


8.0

based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 20 votes
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FILM:

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R for strong sexuality, sex-related dialogue and language, and a scene of drug use

Starring Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon, Loren Nelson, and Chris Klein

This satirical comedy uses a high school election as the backdrop to take an uncommon look at ambition, morality, desire, love and the lies we never cease telling ourselves. (Paramount Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Comedy
WRITTEN BY:	Tom Perrotta (novel) Alexander Payne Jim Taylor
DIRECTED BY:	Alexander Payne
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: October 19, 1999 Video: October 19, 1999 Theatrical: April 23, 1999
RUNNING TIME:	103 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Boston Globe Jay Carr

An invigoratingly mordant comedy that proves that Alexander Payne's rambunctious debut, "Citizen Ruth," was no fluke.

100

Slate David Edelstein

American satire rarely comes more winning than Election, an exuberantly caustic comedy that shows the symbiotic relationship between political go-get-'em-ism and moral backsliding.

100

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The satire of the season, a hilarious, razor-sharp indictment of the American Dream.

100

Film.com Ernest Hardy

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

100

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

A wonderful, piercing and hilarious examination of high school politics and how bitter and ruinous it can become.

100

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

With Election, Payne announces himself as one of the keenest purveyors of the scattered pieces that once was an American morality.

100

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Alexander Payne's scathing, subtle, and complexly funny tragicomedy builds a perfect, off-kilter universe--it's a first cousin to "Rushmore."

100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

This is a nearly flawless little film, a cheerful nightmare that knows just where it wants to go and uses precisely calibrated comic effects to get there.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Election is a bracingly intelligent adult comedy that shrewdly captures adolescence.

Film.com Henry Cabot Beck

Resonates with the fluorescent horror of real-life high school, something few movies about this generation have managed to successfully capture.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Brandishes the sort of intelligent wit and bracing nastiness that will make it more appealing to discerning adults than to teens who just want to have fun.

Film.com John Hartl

Wickedly funny, scathingly original new comedy.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Alexander Payne is a director whose satire is omnidirectional. He doesn't choose an easy target and march on it. He stands in the middle of his story and attacks on all directions.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The actors are solid at every position, but Broderick, who seems to get better with each performance, is especially good at playing the impulsively self-destructive yet sympathetic loser.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

When it comes to eloquently telling it like it is, Election puts the nation's political pundits to shame.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Election has the sharpest satire of any teen movie made in years. Like the best lampoons, it attacks by exaggerating reality ever-so-slightly and targeting a broad range of subjects.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

A terrific work of political and social satire set in a Nebraska high school that has the intelligence of (the less coherent) "Rushmore," while painting a much darker picture of politics and human relationships.

The New York Times Janet Maslin

Election is a deft dark comedy with a resemblance to "Rushmore." It's smart no matter what.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Witherspoon's broad, obsessive comic performance is bound to get the most attention, but Broderick does the best work of his career, finding an affecting spot between the all-purpose defiance of Ferris Bueller and the put-upon foil of his recent work.

Salon.com Mary Elizabeth Williams

Wickedly funny, an ode to youthful overachievers that's as blackhearted as "Rushmore" was gently sentimental.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

A fine, near-seamless film that finally suffers slightly from an inability to wrap up its tale.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The screenplay by Payne and Jim Taylor, based on the novel by Tom Perrotta, sees the lives of these suburban students and teachers through a prism of absurdity that refracts more truth than any straightforward telling.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

At best, the humour in Election is perceptive, nasty, pointed, and lets no one off its barbed hook, not even the audience. In other words, it's a lovely piece of satire, made all the more relevant by the setting.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

Election is finally, necessarily, as much about sex as it is about politics -- wanting it, getting it, losing it.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Surprise! An intelligent, well-written high school story.

Newsweek David Ansen

Director Payne, who adapted Tom Perrotta's novel with Jim Taylor, has an authentically dire view of human behavior, which he expresses in crisp, edgy and sometimes startlingly raunchy style.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

Happily, this irreverent, sharply observant comedy sweeps us into the maelstrom too. Amid the glut of teen movies rolling out of the studios every week, Election deserves special attention.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

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

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Often distastefully juvenile.

Chicago Tribune Marc Caro

Entertaining but frustratingly uneven.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Broderick and Witherspoon give perfectly matched performances at the head of a first-rate cast.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

The film never finds a confident tone: it's pitched as a satire, but seems to have no real targets.

TNT RoughCut Christopher Brandon

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 20 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

[Anonymous] gave it a9:
Great movie. Hilarious. I thought Kevin Kline was surprising good.

K S gave it a10:
This movie was great, and really gives a good view of the bigger picture-American elections and middle class society.

Gabor A. gave it a9:
One of the best comedies...movies of all time. Hits the nail right on the head over and over.

Margaret F. gave it a0:
This is the most disgusting and vile pathetic excuse for a movie I have seen in a long time; Truly awful-Matthew Broderick is an anxious boring soulless teacher whilst Reece Witherspoon is utterly useless in her part as an conceited ambitious teenager. The hopeless plot and script struggles and dies long before the credits appear.

Joey K. gave it an8:
This is a great, and very underrated movie. It's very funny, and very smart.

J. Ryan G. gave it a10:
One of the most underrated films of all time, this is the modern standard for showing the interiors of American high schools and how the apathetic following through the motions can reach a fever pitch and make some people go crazy. One of the great movies about institutions of any variety and the people who feel (and may just be) trapped inside.

Zsuzsa B gave it a 10:
Fantastic movie, which is able to show our real, sad world in a very funny way.

Election Paramount Pictures

Election
Paramount Pictures