Alexander Payne is not a super prolific filmmaker. Sure, most everything he directs ends up earning acclaim and awards recognition, but he just doesn’t direct all that often. In the past 25 years since the release of his acclaimed “Election,” he’s only made six more features. But that might be changing, as the filmmaker is headed to Europe for a new film. 

READ MORE: ‘Election’ Sequel: Alexander Payne Says He Wants Matthew Broderick Back & To “Loosely” Adapt The Book That Doesn’t Include His Character

According to ScreenDaily, Alexander Payne is developing a new Danish-language film that would be fully funded by European financiers.

Continue reading Alexander Payne Is Developing A Danish-Language Film at The Playlist.

As you probably have heard by now, writer Tom Perrota, the author of 1998’s novel “Election,” which was adapted into a very successful feature film by filmmaker Alexander Payne, has written the sequel, 2022’s book “Tracy Flick Can’t Win.” And some years back, it was announced that Payne and Reese Witherspoon would reunite to adapt that book into a movie.

READ MORE: ‘The Holdovers’ Review: Alexander Payne & Paul Giamatti Reunite For A ’70s Nostalgia Dramedy [Telluride]

Some thought it would be Payne’s next movie.

Continue reading ‘Election’ Sequel: Alexander Payne Says He Wants Matthew Broderick Back & To “Loosely” Adapt The Book That Doesn’t Include His Character at The Playlist.

With Alexander Payne‘s latest “The Holdovers” making the festival rounds before it hits theaters in October, fans of the director wonder what he’ll start work on next. Will it be the long-gestating sequel to his 1999 film “Election,” titled “Tracy Flick Can’t Win“? Payne’s short answer about that project: don’t hold your breath.

READ MORE: ‘Tracy Flick Can’t Win’: An ‘Election’ Sequel Is In The Works At Paramount+ With Reese Witherspoon & Director Alexander Payne Returning

World Of Reel (via a Collider interview) provides a status report on the Payne project.

Continue reading ‘Tracy Flick Can’t Win’: Alexander Payne Says He Has “A Couple Things To Do Before” He Makes His ‘Election’ Sequel at The Playlist.

Few ’90s comedies are as beloved as Alexander Payne‘s cult classic “Election.” Now, Deadline reports that Payne and Paramount Pictures have a sequel to the film in the works over at Paramount+, with Reese Witherspoon also on board to reprise her iconic role as Tracy Flick.

READ MORE: Reese Witherspoon Says There’s A “Deep Desire” For More ‘Big Little Lies’ In The Future

Like the 1999 film, “Tracy Flick Can’t Win” is based on a novel by Tom Perrotta, whose sequel to his 1998 book came out in June.

Continue reading ‘Tracy Flick Can’t Win’: An ‘Election’ Sequel Is In The Works At Paramount+ With Reese Witherspoon & Director Alexander Payne Returning at The Playlist.

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage, and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This weekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching. 

One of the year’s best films hits disc and VOD this week, along with a TIFF ’19 sensation, a stellar new documentary, and an assortment of catalog Blu-rays with something for (almost) every taste.

Continue reading The 8 Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘The Assistant,’ ‘Bad Education’ & More at The Playlist.

Filmmaker Alexander Payne’s explored and satirized many facets of the human condition and almost exclusively through their comedic defects and deficiencies. But his masterwork is still arguably 1999’s “Election,” a biting satire of hubris and rivalry set in the world of high school politics. Centering on an insufferable overachiever (Reese Witherspoon) who runs for high school president and the envious, bitter teacher (Matthew Broderick) who tries to undermine her election campaign, its dirty, underhanded tricks, scheming and vengeful backchanneling is more politically relevant than ever.

Continue reading Alexander Payne’s ‘Election’ Is Coming To The Criterion Collection at The Playlist.

It seems that every year another fresh crop of filmmakers make their debut movies, and a high proportion are coming-of-age stories. A sadly low percentage, however, are any good, which is why this week brings us significant reason to rejoice: First-time filmmaker Kelly Fremon Craig brings us the adorable, sprightly “The Edge Of Seventeen.” In many ways this year’s “The Diary Of A Teenage Girl” in being both the debut of an exciting new female filmmaker and a funny, fresh, newly insightful take on the teen-movie genre, ‘Seventeen’ perhaps does not reinvent the wheel in the way that Marielle Heller‘s film did, but it’s such a bouncy picture, centered around such a tremendously relatable turn from Hailee Steinfeld, that to disparage it as a result would be a little like critiquing a puppy.

Continue reading The 50 Best Teen Movies Of All Time at The Playlist.

For sheer twists, turns, stakes and nail-biting drama, nothing at the movies this year has been able to compete with the 2016 Election. We’re still a week away from election day, and we’ve already worn out a mouse and got carpal tunnel syndrome from refreshing FiveThirtyEight, so gripping has the battle been between the potential first ever female President of the United States Hillary Clinton, and grope-happy steak salesman Donald Trump.

Continue reading The 25 Best Movies About Politics at The Playlist.