ELECTION (1999 - Cert 15)

Film Four is always good for chucking a little nugget my way. And so it was again, when I came across Election, the film where it all started to go right for director Alexander Payne. A lot of praise has been heaped on him of late for The Descendants (and Oscars in fact, one for his writing credit and a couple of nominations for best director and best film). I must admit that I've not yet seen that film, but it was Sidways which really put Payne on the map for me. A real man's rom-com, with a sneery, self-deprecating quality, something that I'm told is a feature of all of his films (except perhaps Jurassic Park 3, for which he has a writing credit - invested factoid of the day). That is one of the main reasons why I approached Election with high hopes.

High hopes that were thankfully met.

In today's politically troubled times, don't be put off by the title, it's not the sort of democratic process that you might fear. Instead it centres on a campaign to become High School President in full-on suburban Omoha. Matthew Broderick is Jim McAllister, teacher of the year who is in charge of the whole process. A very young Reese Witherspoon is Tracy Flick, irritating class boffin, know-it-all, overly ambitious, self centred but yet still popular, and is also the only candidate for President. That is until McAllister decides to get involved, and to teach Tracy a bit of a lesson, and convinces polite, popular and frankly dim, football hero Paul Metzler (Chris Klein - yes, Oz from American Pie) to run against her. You don't need to be a post-graduate in genre convention to know that things don't turn out quite how everyone would expect.

The high school election thing, particular to us reserved Brits, is a strange idea, and the oddness and unfamiliarity does serve well when it comes to comedy, but it has to be said that the plot isn't really the driving force of why the film works so well. It serves as a traffic policeman trying to keep erratic drivers in revved-up and unreliable vehicles on the straight and narrow. The drivers and cars in this case being the characters and the writing. Payne is mischievous in how he structures the film. It veers this way and that, you are never really sure who the narrative is fully focused on, therefore you never really know who you are meant to be behind. He also serves up some nutty, unpredictable and odd personas up on screen. The casting of Broderick is a master stroke. He still looks stupidly young (he would have been mid-late 30's at the time of this film), and you can still see him as Ferris causing chaos. Here though he is the institution, he is the bad guy. He's no Rooney though, there is still a cheeky rebellious side to his character, without it there wouldn't be an opposition to Tracy and the film wouldn't go anywhere. What you are effectively left with is Mr Bueller, this is what may have happened to Ferris (in fact this may make a superb double bill with Ferris). I've never been overly convinced by Broderick in the acting stakes but he is very good in this. Even when things start to go really wrong for his character, at home as well as at school, he proves that he is able to do the emotion as well as the cheeky, spritely joviality. 

Witherspoon is a strange one. Somehow, I really like her, yet when I look at her filmography, I realise that she hasn't really done anything that I really like, nothing that I consider much good anyway. Walk the Line I hear you say, yes she was decent in it, but it was predictably generic and that lessened her role. Water for Elephants? Ok, again, she was decent, but the film is instantly forgettable. So why do I like her? That question doesn't matter any more, because I have found a reason - Election. Despite her character being so nasty and irritating, she does it in an over the top and funny way, you can't help but like her even though you know that this character should be despised. Part of the appeal is that she isn't afraid to make herself look stupid, she's an attractive girl, but she will happily make stupid faces, chuck herself about and gurn until the cows come home. It's a performance that worked and got her noticed, she received a Golden Globe Nomination. It clearly helped set her on the path she is firmly on now.  

Witherspoon and Broderick are backed up nicely by Klein (doing the same thing he did in American Pie, safe and steady), Jessica Campbell as Metzler's vengeful and possibly lesbian sister Tammy, Phil Reeves doing the headmaster thing very well and Mark Harelik as McAllister's disgraced friend and former colleague. All of them, chipping in very well with humour, twisted bitterness and occasional oddities. 

Payne really gets the best out of his cast, but it's also helped by the skilled writing (he was nominated at the Oscars for best adapted screenplay). The snappy dialogue, internal monologues and voiceovers all all perfectly pitched, the laughs keep coming and the story zips along nicely. Diablo Cody is getting a lot of plaudits for her screenplay style in recent years, but it seems to me that Payne was doing it a long time before she ever was, and arguably, much better. 

If you've not seen it, it may be that this film passes you by, lost in the limbo of late night showings on Channel 4. Don't let it, seek it out, it's well worth it. 

JENNIFER'S BODY (2009)

Diablo Cody made a name for herself with her script for the much loved and hyped Juno, she won an Oscar and a Bafta, she was nominated for a Golden Globe. She was marked for big things and everyone waited with anticipation to see what her next move would be. I'm not sure anyone thought it might take the shape of Jennifer's Body, a high school horror film.



Megan Fox (yes the really irritating one from Transformers) is Jennifer, popular high school chick/slapper. She is friends with, and has been since they were kids, Needy Lesnicky (Amanda Seyfried). I don't think the name Needy is a coincidence, as she constantly craves the approval of her cooler pal resulting in a very one-way relationship. Then after the pair are caught up in a fire at a local bar, a rock band and their devil worshipping ways see a change in Jennifer's behaviour. First there are just mood swings and the occasional bad hair day, then things really get bad as she starts eating boys at her school. The story is all told in flashback by Needy, who is locked up in prison - 'how has she got there' we ask ourselves.

Nothing original there then and all a bit daft - for most of the film I found myself thinking that Cody had copped out and attempted to do a 'genre' piece but forgetting to actually put any effort into it. And when I wasn't thinking that, I was bored. I had seen this sort of thing many times before, and other than the occasional witty quip, it felt staler than the contents of my badly maintained fridge.

Fox is perfectly adequate in this, basically playing the village bicycle which isn't too much of a stretch for her, but she can't quite manage to get as much out of Cody's screenwriting as the undoubtedly more talented Ellen Page in Juno. Seyfried is a bit more interesting, nerdy girl trying to make sense of all this madness while at the same time coming to terms with love, life and growing up.  Oh and saving the school as well. Johnny Simmons makes up the cast as Needy's boyfriend Chip, essentially playing Michael Cera, the now standard issue geek performance, but as well as Michael Cera.

Then we hit the final act and things get a bit more interesting. Jennifer turns up at the High School dance which will effectively be a buffet table for her carnivorous appetite and focuses her attention on poor Chip. This all culminates in a nicely done battle between Jennifer and Needy with some fizzy banter that shows Cody can still do it and doesn't end as you would anticipate. Then we have one final pay off that again, is far from predictable and is also little upsetting.

The best part of the film though is the closing credits (not in a sarcastic way), as we are treated to stills of a vengeful bloodbath in a hotel room with some nasty imagery. It's a great way to end the story, instead of just tacking the scene on at the end of the film which would have made it feel overlong and baggy. A nice touch.

So, a ploddingly predictable and largely unoriginal film until the last 15 minutes, when it all of a sudden becomes enjoyable and a bit left field. If you are a Megan Fox fan, you will probably love it (and you should be ashamed of yourself), but if you aren't, it's just about worth a watch. Only just though.

This is 3rd film I've seen recently where the majority of the film isn't very good but picks up at the end to trick us into thinking the film was more enjoyable than it actually was. This film, Tron: Legacy and The Proposal all had me looking at my watch, then there is a decent finale and I come away thinking, that wasn't that bad....is this a good thing? Well I always maintain that the ending is the most important part of a film, you must get that right otherwise you feel let down (such as Deja Vu). However, having said that, it doesn't give you the right to not bother with 75% of a movie only to ensure that the finale pays off and has us all leaving the cinema in a good mood.