Anyone who has lost faith in the acting ability of Reese Witherspoon due to very wimpy roles in recent years MUST check this movie out. At least that's only one of the reasons.
She plays one of the greatest and sinister characters from a high school movie, which I shouldn't title this underrated masterpiece. I would never put it in the same category as AMERICAN PIE or IDLE HANDS. Witherspoon's Tracy Flick is so unbelievably on target, which goes well with the rest of the marvelous cast (just study Matt Malloy's portrayal of the vice principal). She's the "popular loner", cursed with Macbeth-sized ambition, that she doesn't care about meeting friends or having fun in highschool. She cares about getting ahead of everyone else, bing on top, and above all, being noticed. She even gives RUSHMORE's Max Fischer a run for his yearbook club memberships.
Matthew Broderick has also been an many special-effect extravagant duds, it is more than refreshing to see him here as the sincere, bored and down-on-his-luck Government teacher.
I think it was sheer brilliance for director Alexander Payne to make you root for Broderick as he tries to sabatoge Tracy's chances of winning class president, even though you find that in retrospect it's no big deal. The reason kids vote for Tracy isn't because they're good friends or even like her. They just don't care. The only person who cares about the election is Tracy.
This is pointed out by another wonderful character, Tammy Metzler played by fresh newcomer Jessica Campbell. Campbell doesn't only play one of the best gay high school characters on film but gay characters period. "I'm not a lesbian," she states in an interior monologue all the main characters share. "I believe everyone needs someone to card for, and I just happen to like girls." Well, that's not exactly how she says it, I'm paraphrasing. But you get the idea.
The reason why Payne uses so many interior monologues is because he doesn't want his film to be looked at with one point of view. He's not that kind of satirist. Maybe a very ambitious and spoiled teenager like Tracy will see this film and feel sympathetic toward Tracy as her life is almost ruined by Broderick's teacher. Maybe someone, like myself, will cheer Broderick on and hope that Flick learns her lesson and that there is such a thing as defeat and you shouldn't trample over people and abuse your power. Or maybe someone will be like Tammy Metzler and not even care of the outcome. Just enjoy the hilarity of it all.
Also check out Payne's CITIZEN RUTH, another great comedy on the different sides of the abortion issue.
She plays one of the greatest and sinister characters from a high school movie, which I shouldn't title this underrated masterpiece. I would never put it in the same category as AMERICAN PIE or IDLE HANDS. Witherspoon's Tracy Flick is so unbelievably on target, which goes well with the rest of the marvelous cast (just study Matt Malloy's portrayal of the vice principal). She's the "popular loner", cursed with Macbeth-sized ambition, that she doesn't care about meeting friends or having fun in highschool. She cares about getting ahead of everyone else, bing on top, and above all, being noticed. She even gives RUSHMORE's Max Fischer a run for his yearbook club memberships.
Matthew Broderick has also been an many special-effect extravagant duds, it is more than refreshing to see him here as the sincere, bored and down-on-his-luck Government teacher.
I think it was sheer brilliance for director Alexander Payne to make you root for Broderick as he tries to sabatoge Tracy's chances of winning class president, even though you find that in retrospect it's no big deal. The reason kids vote for Tracy isn't because they're good friends or even like her. They just don't care. The only person who cares about the election is Tracy.
This is pointed out by another wonderful character, Tammy Metzler played by fresh newcomer Jessica Campbell. Campbell doesn't only play one of the best gay high school characters on film but gay characters period. "I'm not a lesbian," she states in an interior monologue all the main characters share. "I believe everyone needs someone to card for, and I just happen to like girls." Well, that's not exactly how she says it, I'm paraphrasing. But you get the idea.
The reason why Payne uses so many interior monologues is because he doesn't want his film to be looked at with one point of view. He's not that kind of satirist. Maybe a very ambitious and spoiled teenager like Tracy will see this film and feel sympathetic toward Tracy as her life is almost ruined by Broderick's teacher. Maybe someone, like myself, will cheer Broderick on and hope that Flick learns her lesson and that there is such a thing as defeat and you shouldn't trample over people and abuse your power. Or maybe someone will be like Tammy Metzler and not even care of the outcome. Just enjoy the hilarity of it all.
Also check out Payne's CITIZEN RUTH, another great comedy on the different sides of the abortion issue.
Tell Your Friends