Happy Hump Day, friends!
The next best thing to an “I Voted” sticker
Speaking mostly to my fellow millennials here, but it’s applicable to anyone who’s bought into the line of thought that young people just aren’t dying from COVID-19. They are; a New York Times investigation of Florida death data shows an increase in people aged 25-44. These people are not reckless barflies or partygoers — they are essential workers and largely people of color. Be careful if you say “COVID isn’t killing young people” because perhaps you really mean “COVID isn’t killing young people like me.”
And, on that note, if you want to help essential workers get essential items, check out Give Essential! Whether you want to give items or just a donation, they’re taking whatever you might offer to give a hand to those who are giving all.
Now, what you came for…
DAY 160: Election (available on Amazon Prime)
“What’s the difference between morals and ethics anyway?” asks Matthew Broderick’s high school civics teacher to a largely apathetic class early on in the film Election. The question never gets answered in the film because he won’t call on overachieving student Tracy Flick (an indelible Reese Witherspoon) as she shoots her hand sky-high with aplomb. But that lack of resolution extends throughout the film, hovering over the events to follow like a dark thematic cloud.
Alexander Payne’s Election is about, you guessed it, an election. (Given some of the eerie parallels between the narrative and 2016, it’s a film that I’ve only just been able to stomach revisiting.) Tracy seems predestined to become George Washington Carver High’s president — it’s what she’s been building towards her entire high school career, and she treats both the campaign and the office with the gravity and organization she believes it deserves.
But Broderick’s Mr. McCallister just can’t seem to stomach something about her and begins to scheme up a plan to thwart Tracy’s coronation. Maybe it’s misogyny of seeing a qualified woman openly strive for power, perhaps it’s some bitterness over some sordid sexual secrets he knows about Tracy. Either way, he begins to put his meddlesome thumb on the scale by encouraging the popular, rich meathead Paul Metzler (Chris Klein) to throw his hat in the ring. Paul’s entry into the race puts his air-headed but genial mediocrity in stark contrast to Tracy’s bookish, technocratic style. Though no one plans for a startling third candidate to run: Paul’s sister Tammy (Jessica Campbell), whose surprise campaign of anarchistic fury connects with a cynical student body and upends everyone’s best laid plans.
Election savagely satirizes American campaigning and governance by boiling down national conflicts to a grassroots, micro level in high school. Payne and co-writer Jim Taylor have a razor-sharp edge to their humor that cuts with searing familiarity and is not afraid to draw blood. But the film endures multiple decades and election cycles later because it so incisively examines what happens when you place power-seeking individuals in the grey area between morals (the values we hold ourselves to) and ethics (the values that society holds us to). Their brilliant use of characters providing voiceover, often directly contradicting the actions they are seen doing on screen, hilariously points out the discrepancy between these two tenets of character — and pinpoints where democracy begins to rot. Everyone can be the hero in the story they tell themselves … but there’s still only one winner of the election.
Be good to yourselves and to each other,
Marshall