The Information on `Election'

What Is It?

Alexander Payne's sharp satire set in an American high school, adapted from Tom Perrotta's 1998 novel about the manoeuvrings surrounding the elections for school president

Who's In It?

Matthew Broderick gives a high-class performance as disillusioned high- school teacher Jim McAllister who is simultaneously obsessed with and repelled by ruthlessly ambitious 16-year-old pupil, Tracy Flick (brilliantly played by Reese Witherspoon).

What They Say About It

"In its incisive observations of American competitiveness, this film has more in common with the awkward Rushmore than the romance'n'redemption candy of She's All That and Never Been Kissed... Reese Witherspoon's comic performance is up there with Christina Ricci's DeDee in The Opposite of Sex," Anthony Quinn, The Independent.

"A devastatingly clever and funny black comedy... with pitiless clarity, it dissects that most unlovely part of the male psyche - seething desire mixed with mean-minded envy - and the most unmentionable envy of all, the envy of the old for the young... it is a modern classic," Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian.

"Election may not be politically correct, but as a microcosm of the malaise creeping through Western democracies, the apathy, vote-rigging, and character assassination manifest at Carver High serves all too well," Tom Charity, Time Out.

Where You Can See It

Election (15, 103 mins) is currently on general release