Election
9/10
This is the fourth Alexander Payne film I've seen (after Sideways, About Schmidt, and The Descendants), and he continues to impress me tremendously. The other three films were all character-focused comedy-dramas (well, Sideways is closer to pure comedy, but it's much more similar to About Schmidt and The Descendents than it is Election), whereas Election is satirical and darkly funny. Despite the difference in tone, Payne doesn't let satirizing achievement and high school politics upstage the characters; the movie delves pretty deep into their minds, and all the actors perform their roles very well.