An ambitious high school student has her sights set on the position of student government president and spares no means to achieve her goals. But one of the teachers, experiencing a life crisis, decides to thwart her plans. Their ongoing rivalry quickly escalates in unexpected directions. Alexander Payne's second feature demonstrated all the characteristics that will make him one of the greatest directors of our time: sharp observation, characters borderlinking patheticness, and a brutal combination of compassion and irony. The result is a witty social satire that 25 years on, is as fresh as ever.