Film Review: Reviewed By David Parkinson; 4 out of 5

Near the top of the league table for high-school movies, this is a dark and very funny twist on the popularity contest theme often central to the genre. The casting of Matthew Broderick (familiar to many as determined truant Ferris Bueller) as a devoted teacher trying to prevent manipulative overachiever Reese Witherspoon from becoming student president is inspired. Director/co-writer Alexander Payne is repaid by his star with a performance of sincere if muddled idealism. Pitted against jock Chris Klein (a pretender for Keanu's slacker crown) and his lesbian sister (Jessica Campbell making a revelatory debut), Witherspoon's blend of corruption and compassion slyly satirises contemporary American politics, while George Washington Carver High School serves as a microcosm of late-20th-century society. Astute, offbeat and uproarious.

Plot Summary

Satirical comedy starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon. Popular student Tracy Flick stands unopposed in the forthcoming elections at her school and looks forward to becoming president of the student government. But a teacher with a long-held grudge against Tracy persuades another student to enter the contest, and things turn really nasty.