Election (1999)

alfred i think it's perfectly legitimate to look at what's communicated by particular characters in particular movies - just because you think it's beneath you doesn't mean it isn't interesting for other people

i love this film. It's such a quiet little gem that doesn't cause a fuss and doesn't expect anything from itself or the viewer, but manages to keep me captivated througout.

still not as good as Wargames though which is arguably my favourite Brod movie

You can make fun of the Tracy Flick's of this world as much as you like - the're still going to 'win'.

I wondered for a long time if we would ever get a female Ferris Bueller onscreen. I suppose Juno comes closest, except she's possibly even more cynical, less enthused and go-getty.

i don't think it's as judgemental as you make out, tuomas

my objection to Sideways isn't that it's middlebrow. i love middlebrow, if i even know what that means. Sideways is gross, though.

how so?

i don't think it's as judgemental as you make out, tuomas

-- blueski, Thursday, February 7, 2008 12:40 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

i agree. that's what i like about this movie. and i'm not surprised it confused tuomas, who seems to yearn for a straightforward and comfortable moral reckoning in art.

The book is much less cartoony, tho I like the film.

i don't think it's very judgemental, both mr. m and tracy do awful things for understandable reasons

and i don't really know where the misogyny claims are coming from, other than that it has a vaguely unsympathetic female lead?

him pitching his drink uselessly against the back of the car is possibly one of the most poignant and awesome things ever captured in a motion picture not based on a true story

Says it all...

my favorite moment in election, and my favorite reese witherspoon moment period, is when she finds out she's won and starts jumping up and down in the empty hallway. payne shoots her from the middle distance, kind of giving tracy the moment to herself. it crystalizes her character, and humanizes her too. it's a very sweet scene.

haha his little blue car was the roffles

it still makes me laugh every time the way Klein's character Paul says so blase yet earnestly "My leg wasn't bugging me too much, and the weather was so nice, and every day after school Lisa and I would go to her house to fuck and have a hot tub."

i don't really know where the misogyny claims are coming from

Clinton voters.

how th hell is half this thread about ferris bueller? Anyone? Anyone?

Nice work with the FLICK cupcakes that looked like a different word.

Haha, never twigged that before. I am stupid.

Pick Flick!

payne shoots her from the middle distance, kind of giving tracy the moment to herself. it crystalizes her character, and humanizes her too.

I agree. Another nice moment: Flick crying in her bedroom, with her Mrs. Spears-like Mom comforting her.

This movie is so completely on-point. It's just fantastic.

"Sideways" is also fantastic.

the weird screaming native american music cue whenever tracey gets angry is my favorite movie music since the yodelling in raising arizona

I love the freeze on Tracey's face just before Broderick launches into a load of exposition about her. Her facial expression is genius.

Anyone who's read the novel: is it written in the various character's voices ala the movie's multiple VOs, or was that Payne's idea?

yeah not getting the Sideways hate. I can't say I especially loved it and it was likely over-praised at the time. Which I also seem to remember leading to a meta dissection of the critical praise. (i.e. lol feel-good movie for malcontent culture-snobs lol). But I still enjoyed it.

well, maybe not "feel-good"

My mum hated Sideways because, and I quote, "It's a middle-aged man's wank fantasy".

but as those go, funnier than Leaving Las Vegas or Before Sunset.

I think the thing I liked so much about "Sideways" was how all of this relatively light-hearted farce was mapped over some incredibly heart-wrenching events (THC's total fear of commitment and its attendant fallout; PG's incredibly deluded lovesickness). The final confrontation between PG and his ex is super harsh and (I thought) awesomely staged and acted.

Yeah, I thought it was a lot less forgiving on its leads than my mum did. Add Giamatti's borderline alcoholism to the stuff Dan said.

'forgiving TO its leads'

I love the freeze on Tracey's face just before Broderick launches into a load of exposition about her. Her facial expression is genius.

Anyone who's read the novel: is it written in the various character's voices ala the movie's multiple VOs, or was that Payne's idea?

-- chap, Thursday, February 7, 2008 4:06 PM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

he didn't tell her about the freeze frame when they shot the scene haha. i think he came up with it in the editing room.

I saw this doc on editing which had an interview w/Payne and he admitted that when cutting Election he was influenced by The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly in terms of freezing on close-ups and such.

the weird screaming native american music cue whenever tracey gets angry is my favorite movie music since the yodelling in raising arizona

-- n/a, Thursday, February 7, 2008 11:01 AM (54 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

this is morricone's theme from navajo joe!! it was in kill bill too

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/4362/vmsy400sx600bt5.jpg

totally didnt notice the fuck thing hahahah

I'd like to point out that this is the only film I can think of where product placement is actually rather cleverly and naturally integrated into the storyline and the characters, and is done in such a way that it explicitly equates one of the products (Pepsi - he throws a PEPSI at the car not a coke!) with being a loser

I seem to remember Perrotta switching first-person narrators by chapter too. (The Klein jock is not a moron in the book, either)

"Looks like you could use a CUPCAKE!"

For 12 seconds I thought Chris Klein was cute.

this thread is making me regret throwing out my VHS copy of this movie

Reese is cute, for someone who looks a human bulldog.

xp: C Klein is way cuter than the guy Katie Holmes left him for

yeah, but he was such an SP.

when david brooks or somebody wrote a column last year about whatever happened to middlebrow culture, sideways was the first thing i thought of. it's ironic middlebrow, but it's still sort of proudly middlebrow. which i think is fine, middlebrow culture deserves some respect. but i think that's payne's whole orientation.

-- tipsy mothra, Thursday, 7 February 2008 08:06 (10 hours ago) Link

lol what ISN'T middlebrow these days? oscar voters and film comment finding middle ground on 'no country' and 'milkshake' == middlebrows have won.

which is fine but what does this guy even mean by 'what happened to it?'?

what is high brow these days?

David Lynch

highbrow is furriners whose unseen movies leave PT Anderson in the dust (Jia, Weerasethakul, Hong, Tsai etc)

yep. figured as much.

I thought you hated Jia, Morbs.

I love all those dudes, but I'm really not interested in claiming them as "highbrow".

betcha you can't name three living 'highbrow' filmmakers working in the US