Stars: Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Klein, Jessica Campbell, Mark Harelik, Phil Reeves

Director: Alexander Payne

Summary: An election campaign at the local high school is turning out to be a one horse race. However the history teacher has other ideas and he decides to look for other candidates.

Director Alexander (CITIZEN RUTH) Payne's second film, based on the novel by Jim Perotta, takes the scandal and mudslinging associated with presidential elections and transposes them to a high school election for student council president in Nebraska- with impossibly sharp, satirical results. Matthew Broderick, in a reversal of FERRIS BUELLER, plays Jim McAllister, a teacher who will stop at nothing to prevent perfect Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), who is running unopposed, from winning the election. Jim, who bears a personal grudge against Tracy, goads a popular but dim football player into running against her. This spurs on a series strange events, (both madcap and surprisingly sexual) which add up to an uncommonly funny high school film for grown ups. Performances are great all-around and Payne uses shifting-narration and a series of freeze frames which give the film a rich and layered feel.

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A contemporary Jamaican fable with a remarkable, out-of-nowhere hero, Countrymanis the story of a Rastafarian fisherman, Countryman (credited to "Himself"), who rescues a marijuana-smuggling, American couple from an airplane crash. The good deed doesn't end there, however. An ambitious and power-hungry, emerging despot, Colonel Sinclair (Basil Keane), hypes the significance of the crash to impress political leaders, maintaining the smugglers are, in fact, enemy agents plotting against the government. Thus Countryman's new friends are in great danger, and he keeps them out of harm's way between smoking spliffs and putting up a preternaturally agile fight against Sinclair's weapons-wielding thugs. The film exudes an infectious, contact-high energy, and Countryman's gravity-defying stunts should please fans of similarly spectacular martial-arts movies such as Hero. The soundtrack to this 1982 movie features some of the greats of Jamaican reggae, including Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals, and Steel Pulse. --Tom Keogh

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Audio Commentary With Director Alexander Payne
Subtitles:	Bulgarian, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Turkish
Year:	1999
Release Date:	December 4, 2000
Runtime:	99 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	P H E 8036
Keywords:	High, English, School, Comedy, Romance, Drama, Politics, Election
Genre:	Drama