Film Screening: Election (Alexander Payne, USA, 1999)

Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick stare in Alexander Payne’s award-winning satire about an election for student government president. In the character of Tracy Flick, an overachieving and self-important junior, Election offers a timely presentation of the power of the demagogue: a person who always seems to be presenting you with a logical puzzle for which they are the answer. A parable for elections in general; voters have always had to choose from among the kinds of people who have been running for office ever since high school.