Alexander Payne's Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

The social microcosm film about elections in general is the film that put Alexander Payne on the map. The biting humour, the Cromwellian tactics used to win, and the cost of making stupid choices are all fully on display in the fight for a simple school council election.

Reese Witherspoon's Tracy Flick is the girl you just loathe for all the right reasons, she is annoying, pushy, and willing to use her gender to get her own way. Meanwhile, Matthew Broderick's well-intentioned but flawed teacher is her nemesis from the shadows, trying to make her lose at all costs.

There are few films that so accurately exaggerate and perfectly detail the rancour of real elections quite like Election. By shrinking the scope of the film from a nation-wide battle to a school war, Payne is able to really throw in all of his most sardonic statements about politics as a whole.

This one is a classic because of the high visceral responses it stirs up, not tears of joy, but anger and bitterness. Flick represents the politicians that so many average people hate, and Payne wrote her beautifully, without restraint.