Elect "Election" over this pretentious mess

Rating: 1/10 (22 April 2000)

American Beauty is a "pitching-wedge" film. It's a film that has one great character. The actor who plays the character gets a pitching wedge shot close to the pin, i.e. he is the frontrunner for the Oscars. Spacey is brilliant and deserved the Oscar. However, this film wasn't even the best suburban morality play OF THAT YEAR!!! Alexander Payne's Election was a true American masterpiece that should have won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay (sorry John Irving) and Best Actress (Sorry Hilary Swank but Witherspoon gave THE female performance of 1999) I think Jessica Campbell and Chris Klein deserved Oscar nominations for their performances in Election. Campbell proved herself a much finer actress than Thora Birch. And Klein far outstripped his American Pie costar Mena Suvari If you want to see a great filmC pass over American Beauty and watch ElectionB