Election(1999)
dir. Alexander Payne
A school election, rigged by the grown-ups.
Where to watch: Subscription: Paramount+ ($8.99/mo), MGM Plus; free: Kanopy (library card), YouTube with ads; rent $5.99, buy $4.99-14.99 on Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango At Home (JustWatch US, checked 2026-11-06). Verify.Letterboxd ↗
At Carver High, overachiever Tracy Flick is running unopposed for student body president, and her teacher, Mr. McAllister, decides he cannot let that happen. What starts as a dry school comedy turns into a story of a rigged contest, small cruelties, and the quiet ways adults twist power. A black comedy that treats a high-school vote like a presidential one.
Why it’s here
It's a film about who gets to run and who gets stopped. What's punk is a satire that lets neither the system nor its self-righteous teacher off the hook. What's pedagogical is Tracy herself, a character viewers read very differently depending on their age, which is its own lesson in bias. Pairs with Idiocracy, Dr. Strangelove and How Democracies Die. Note: R-rated; sexual content between an adult and a student, played for discomfort; teens and adults. English.
Where This Film Lives
Read Alongside
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