election vs. american beauty

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i will die for the sacred truth that matthew broderick is, has always been, and will always be a better actor than kevin spacey.

― ethan, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You're so indie and hip, Ethan.

This is a fight where everyone wins, by the way, since both movies are great. I'll pick _Election_, though, just because of those freeze-frame shots of Reese Witherspoon looking quite unReese-like.

Fill me up!

― David Raposa, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

its all about the matthew, hf that boy is

― anthony, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I haven't seen election but I'll take Reese on the basis of Freeway. rowr. and I like Kevin Spacey.

am i unhip?

― Sam-at-home, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

election election election election election election!!!!!!!!!!!

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

hey, I'm talking to you, cracker bunny. . .

― Sam-at-home, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Election has better lines, that's fer sure.

"After school we'd go back to her place to fuck, and have a hot dog..."

― JM, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i'm too drunk to be precise but freeway has that great line when reese is being interrogated. . .something along the lines of

"he wanted to do sex on my dehd body!"

heh heh.

― Sam-at-home, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Am I the cracker bunny in question?

And for the record, no, Sam, you ain't unhip. I, however, haven't seen Freeway, so I'm probably a dork. I HAVE, however, suffered through Cruel Intentions. It wasn't worth seeing, even if Buffy kissed another girl. Sad, but true.

― David Raposa, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well dave, I haven't seen that either. BUt you should really see Freeway. It sounds like it could be bad b/c it's a modern take on Little Red Riding Hood. But it has Keifer Sutherland as a homicidal pyschopath (rowr) and Reese Witherspoon as a sassy, whitetrash slut (ROWR) and implies incarierated lesbian sex.

grr.

― Sam-at-home, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

plus a really good fucked up danny elfman score.

― ethan, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Election is so clearly a better film in every way than American Beauty. And as for Freeway, it's the best liberal white trash prison exploitation film ever. So there.

― Mark Morris, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Actually Jimmy i think it was "hot tub". But yes, it was very funny.

Also: "What the hell is she doing in that limousine? Who the FUCK does she think she is?!?!"

Also: the Metzler guy thanking god for his large penis.

― Tim, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'Election' is waaaay better than 'American Beauty'. But 'Rushmore' is better than 'Election'.

― DavidM, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I hated Rushmore. Except for Bill Murray.

― Melissa W, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

seen em all. i'm not falling for this indie thing. spacey can act the pants of broderick. (and i say that having watched my treasured video of Wargames a few too many times.) i saw spacey at the theatre -- the ice man cometh. really astounding. nobody in the broderick camp has mentioned inspector gadget. odd that.

― Alan Trewartha, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I like 'em both, though the honest-to-god truth is that Rushmore beats both of them into the ground with sledgehammers and then spits on their dead bodies and laughs, maniacally, but this is neither here nor there. They both have their strong points. I love the end of Election though. And Reese Witherspoon reminds me of Fred's sister.

― Ally, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Freeway is a fantastic movie, as was the not at all a sequel Freeway 2: Confessions of a Trick Baby - Natasha Lyonne rowr.

In an Election vs American Beauty bitchfight I think all the above answer have it. If only for - as again mentioned above - the fantastic freezie-frame of Reese mid sentence. Its a particularly resonant movie for me since the SU president here last year was so Tracy FLick I almost did a Brioderick to make her lose. Luckily I am above diddling elections.

― Pete, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I agree about Broderick being a better actor, but I can't stand Election. All the characters are jerks and they stay that way during the whole film.

― Lesley Higgins, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't think they were all jerks. They all had jerky qualities. But that's high school. My mistake was to bring my whole family to see it. I thought it was going to be Ferris Bueller-level. No.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Election, I think. Yes.

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah, that's probably part of it, I didn't go to a suburban high school, and during that time I hung around people older than myself as much as possible. I like Rushmore much better, I own the Criterion DVD.

― Lesley Higgins, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

o and Cruel Intentions = silliest and BEST Dangerous Liaisons versh ever. cinemax convinced me of this.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ah, Rushmore. Never have I hated a sixties soundtrack more.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ned, what the hell?

― ethan, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What's wrong with it, Ned?

― Ally, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

why are you agreeing with me on everything today?

― ethan, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

To piss you off. Now simmer down, cowboy, wait patiently for Ned's answer.

― Ally, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Rushmore rocks my socks. Will that kid ever be in another movie? Election is funny as hell, but not quite enough so to put it over American Beauty.

― bnw, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

jason schwartzman is going to be playing ethan in some movie called something ethan. i think there's an action verb in the title.

― ethan, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Phantom Planet!

― David Raposa, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I haven't seen Rushmore or American Beauty but Election was fucking awesome. I saw Three Strikes last night, featuring appearances by David Allen Grier, Joe Isuzu as a lawyer, and E-40 as a hair salon owner in a performance that deserves an Oscar. Directed by DJ Pooh. It was even better than Friday!

― Kris, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

For whatever reason -- but likely because I am fucking sick of its overdetermination as a lodestone in popular culture -- whereas a collection of sixties songs in and of itself bothers me not at all, a collection of sixties songs as a soundtrack to a movie made anytime after The Big Chill, let's say, makes me want to track down every last baby-boomer ever and implant pure white noise into their skulls. There, you wanted to know.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The lead singer of Phantom Planet asked me out online once.

― Melissa W, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I hate all the movies mentioned in this thread except for Freeway and Cruel Intentions.

― Otis Wheeler, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Wheeler, you have the worst taste in anything, ever.

― Ally, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Otis, I'm pretty sure you've never seen Three Strikes. I hate most of the movies I haven't seen though. Never mind.

― Kris, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

but ned, the rushmore soundtrack was an antidote to the big chill soundtrack, hardly a warm bath for baby boomers more like a bucket of ice water saying "when you had the creation & the kinks, why do we only hear the same dozen motown hits?" plus it was aided & abetted by a member of devo. what's not to like?

― fritz, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

besides which the music served the film - the folk-rock stuff making explicit its debts to "harold & maude" and "the graduate"

― fritz, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

and since when are zoot sims, yves montand & django reinhardt archetypes of baby boomer cultural domination? (ok, I'm done.)

― fritz, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Election, by far.

Also, Ned -- although I have great appreciation for your sentiment -- you are obviously mad. ;)

I don't detect any overtly pro-Baby Boomer fingerprints on the selection of that soundtrack. Film closer "Ooh La La" crystallizes this if nothing else. Fritz is dead on re: "The Graduate" and "Harold and Maude." You could make a case for a nod to the British Angry Young Man films of the 1960s, too (those films, which share a spirit with Rushmore, helping to pave the cultural way for the Who, Kinks, Creation). And if anything the Bill Murray character -- not a happy, healthy fellow, of course -- is most explicitly associated with that Boomer landmark, Dustin Hoffman's "Graduate" role. I don’t think anyone is romanticizing any decades past in this film. Living in the past -- or at least outside of the present and outside of one’s age-group peers -- haunts and harms each of three major characters.

― scott p., Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the folk-rock stuff making explicit its debts to "harold & maude" and "the graduate"

Neither of which I give the slightest flying fuck for.

Living in the past -- or at least outside of the present and outside of one’s age-group peers -- haunts and harms each of three major characters.

There is no need to convince me of *that* -- I lived for two years with a gaggle of SCA-obsessed freaks who wished it was 1450 or so. It is perhaps for that reason that I don't find this general situation particularly interesting, and why I resist replacing one orthodoxy with another.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

harold and maude is cracking you one-man insane clown posse

― mark s, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Bud Cort's best role was the computer in Electric Dreams. And I have no problem in saying that. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

older man fantasizing abt high-school student - check
New York City as symbol of escape from smalltown drear - check
one-dimensional wife - check
marital infidelity as a consequence of sparkless marriage - check
every mid-life-crisis cliche in the book presented as one man's triumph against an oppressive and unfeeling monoculture in which only a sole rebel understands him - uh, only one of these movies has this i think

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 19 February 2004 13:50 (twenty-two years ago)

american beauty is my least favorite movie of all time EVAH, so election wins by a landslide.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 19 February 2004 19:36 (twenty-two years ago)

MB roolz in You Can Count on Me.

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Thursday, 19 February 2004 19:47 (twenty-two years ago)

"I also like bananas"
"Paul, Paul for president, ...power, peanut"

What I like the most about Election though are the speeches given by the presidential candidates, absolutely classic scene!

And when Paul says, "huh?" after his Spanish teacher has asked him in Spanish to report to the office.

― metfigga (metfigga), Thursday, 19 February 2004 19:48 (twenty-two years ago)

whoputchauptothis?? whoputchauptothis?!?!?

Election, all the way.

― Prude (Prude), Thursday, 19 February 2004 20:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm embarassed by the fact that I enjoyed American Beauty when it came out. Revisiting it two years later was horrific. The Ref is definitely superior (god knows Judy Davis is a better actress than Annette Bening).

It's a bit unnecessarily harsh sometimes (part of the reason I haven't seen About Schmidt) but I love Election.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 19 February 2004 20:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm embarassed by the fact that I enjoyed American Beauty when it came out.

Yeah, I'm the same way. I raved about when I saw it in the theater -- I had all sorts of ideas about the color symbolism and shit. And then months later I thought what the hell, another movie founded on the tired premise that the suburbs are stifling and conformist. Good one, Hollywood! I also defended the idea that Chris Cooper's character wasn't *really* gay for far too long.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 19 February 2004 20:29 (twenty-two years ago)

that same year I was nuts about "Fight Club." Yeesh. Getting a girlfriend changed everything.

oh and Tracer OTM re: Cruel Intentions. Me and my sister watched it immediately after Dangerous Liasions and I'd love more "adaptations" like this one.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 19 February 2004 20:31 (twenty-two years ago)

at least fight club is funny. american beauty doesn't have much going for it besides thora birch, and the presence of kevin fucking spacey (i'm with ethan on this one) pretty much sinks it.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 19 February 2004 21:01 (twenty-two years ago)

fight club is still good!

― ryan (ryan), Thursday, 19 February 2004 21:34 (twenty-two years ago)

But what about Bring It On Again? I saw this yesterday or the day before and it was great. No race stuff, but doing the 80s freaks vs. poshies except all WITH CHEERLEADING! Also gothy activist girl = best stereotypes evah.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 19 February 2004 22:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Tracer OTM. American Beauty may be the worst movie ever. When;s the last time an Oscar went to a movie that you didn't want to eradicate, anyways?

― Sym (shmuel), Thursday, 19 February 2004 23:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Last year with "Chicago". (I still like "American Beauty".)

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 19 February 2004 23:54 (twenty-two years ago)

When people first started seeing Kevin Spacey in films they thought was was great, and he is. AT PLAYING KEVIN SPACEY IN EVERY MOVIE.

Election.

― Gear! (Gear!), Thursday, 19 February 2004 23:58 (twenty-two years ago)

If Kevin Spacey is just like the serial killer from "Se7en" in real life, I must make sure I never ever ever ever meet him.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 20 February 2004 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

best picture winners that deserved it: The Apartment, Godfathers 1 and 2, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Annie Hall. any others?

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 20 February 2004 00:03 (twenty-two years ago)

whoputchauptothis?? whoputchauptothis?!?!?

how great is that wild tribal sounding music they play right then and there!

― metfigga (metfigga), Friday, 20 February 2004 00:05 (twenty-two years ago)

"Chariots Of Fire", "The Last Emperor", "The Silence Of The Lambs", "Chicago"

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 20 February 2004 00:07 (twenty-two years ago)

how green was my valley in '41 deserved it.

― todd swiss (eliti), Friday, 20 February 2004 00:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Spacey killed my wife and put her head in a box, so there you have it.

― Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 20 February 2004 01:12 (twenty-two years ago)

DIET MUG ROOT BEER

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 20 February 2004 01:32 (twenty-two years ago)

totally! and he takes a sip from it in some sort of foreplay kinda way.

"your fucking novel!"

― metfigga (metfigga), Friday, 20 February 2004 01:37 (twenty-two years ago)

what really got me about this movie though, the first time i saw it was how the movie seemed to be so polite and innocent and then, "her ___ gets so wet"

then the movie just takes off.

― metfigga (metfigga), Friday, 20 February 2004 01:40 (twenty-two years ago)

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