McAllister is a mélange of every educator you’ve ever had – dingy short-sleeved oxford shirt, bad tie, brown shoes, tiny Ford Festiva, and a genuine love of teaching. Despite winning George Washington Carver High’s "Teacher of the Year" a record three times in his twelve-year tenure, McAllister still has one major Achilles heel that ultimately leads to his unraveling – a peppy junior named Tracy Flick.

Flick (Reese Witherspoon, Cruel Intentions) is running unopposed for the student body President, and her vivacity and eagerness are just the qualities that would have made her an easy target for people like Ferris. She in the top seven percent of her class, dresses like she’s still trapped in Pleasantville, walks like she has a bulky object crammed up her backside, and perfectly pronounces every word that leaves her tightly pursed lips. And don’t get me started on her hair, which, at one point, resembles demonic horns.

Things take an odd turn at Carver when McAllister convinces well-liked school quarterback Paul Metzler (Chris Klein) to run against the seemingly unstoppable Flick juggernaut. When the dust settles, viewers will have been treated to tastes of pornography, marital infidelity, lesbianism, sex with minors, election tampering, and a very disturbing scene where McAllister cleanses his genitals in the bathtub of a cheap hotel. Not your typical MTV Production, eh?

Payne’s direction (he also co-wrote the script, based on the Tom Perrotta novel) is reminiscent of both Wes Anderson’s superior Rushmore and either of Betty Thomas’ biopics, The Late Show and Private Parts. Repeatedly using montage clips, Payne also bathes his actors in a sea of horrible fluorescent lighting, exposing every physical flaw.

Although the acting is first-rate, Witherspoon’s Flick really stands out. Her unknowingly fiendish role will likely be remembered among the more evil roles in film history, along with Oddjob, Keyser Soze, Robert Patrick in Terminator 2 and that Russian guy from the fourth Rocky film. Or was it the third? Well, you get my point.

1:43 – for adult language, nudity, sexual content and drug use