Election poster

Election (1999)

Film · 1h 43m · Rated R

Comedy, Drama

A determined student's ambition clashes with a teacher's resentment, sparking a darkly comedic high school battle.

Satirical and darkly comic, with dry wit. A full-attention watch at a measured pace. Emotionally it carries some weight.

Streaming on Paramount+ and Kanopy (free).

Election parents guide

No surprises for an R: moderate sex and nudity, and no real violence.

Scare
Not scary
Jump scares
None noted
Gore
No gore
Violence
No real violence
Sex and nudity
Moderate
Moderate means a sex scene or nudity on screen, even brief, or sexual violence that is described or implied but never shown.
Language
Moderate
Some strong profanity, a few f-words.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

What is Election about?

A high school teacher meets his match in an over-achieving student politician.

Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)

It leaves the ending open to interpretation.

Cast and crew

Directed byAlexander Payne
StarringMatthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Klein, Jessica Campbell, Mark Harelik, Phil Reeves

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Election is on our Cozy fall list.

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Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.