Adam Saunders, Bex Taylor-Klaus, comedy, Dallas, Ebin Antony, Elizabeth Newcomer, Hayley Keown, Jasleen Narvaez, Kathy Guggenheim, Kym Whitley, Lane Factor, Lucie Solene Allouche, movies, Nathalie Kelley, Paola Andino, Re-Election, reviews, Rhett Parker Pelloquin, Tony Danza, William Ragsdale
December 31, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Adam Saunders
Culture Representation: Taking place in the Dallas area, in 2019, the comedy film “Re-Election” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Asians, black people and Latin people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A 42-year-old high school dropout re-enrolls in his former high school so that he can campaign to be senior-class president, an election that he lost when he was a senior in high school.
Culture Audience: “Re-Election” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of “back to school” comedies and movies that take a bittersweet look at midlife crises.
“Re-Election” is a mixed bag of goofy, heartfelt, ridiculous and sharp comedy about a 42-year-old high school dropout who re-enrolls in his former high school so he can campaign to be senior-class president. Not all of the jokes work well, but the main characters are watchable and there’s enough to hold viewer interest to see how the movie will end.
Written and directed by Adam Saunders, who also stars as the movie’s protagonist, “Re-Election” at times comes across as a bit of a vanity project where Saunders expects viewers to find his dorky, emotionally immature Jimmy Bauer character to automatically be relatable or adorable. Jimmy is actually quite irritating for at least one-third of the movie, which at times meanders and then rushes in a series of big developments toward the end of the story. “Re-Election” takes place in the Dallas area. The movie was actually filmed in Louisiana.
Jimmy is a 42-year-old underachiever, who has had the same job since he was a teenager: working as a sales clerk for a small shop of collectibles called Stan’s Memorabilia, which sells mostly cheap knick knacks related to American history. Jimmy’s widower father Stanislaw, nicknamed Stan (played by Tony Danza), owns the shop, which is financially struggling during a time when online retailers are dominating this type of business.
Jimmy lives in a small outdoor storage shed located behind the shop. He is first seen wearing nothing but underwear, as he takes a figurine of George Washington and a figurine of Abraham Lincoln, and he pretends they’re having an imaginary conversation about Jimmy. In this imaginary conversation, Washington and Lincoln say that Jimmy has wasted his potential.
Jimmy (a never-married bachelor with no children) is feeling nostalgia blues because he’s been looking at his high school yearbook and is reminded of why he dropped out of Richardson High School during his senior year in 1995. For the first three years of his high school education, Jimmy was elected president of his class. Jimmy thought he was a shoo-in to be elected president of his senior-year class, but he lost to an opponent named Manish Singh. In quick flashback scenes, teenage Jimmy is played by Rhett Parker Pelloquin and teenage Manish is played by Ebin Antony.
Jimmy was so upset by losing this election, he dropped out high school when he was just three credits shy of graduating. Meanwhile, adult Manish (played by Rizwan Manji) has the life that Jimmy has always wanted: Manish is now governor of Texas, and he is married to a woman named Charlie (played by Elizabeth Newcomer), who was Jimmy’s big crush when they were all students at Richardson High School. Manish and Charlie seem to have a “picture perfect” life, including having two kids and a dog that they show in Manish’s campaign ads.
Manish is campaigning for re-election as governor. One of his upcoming campaign rallies will be at Richardson High School. Jimmy decides to go to the event. But before he goes, Jimmy spills a giant mess of peanut butter that gets on his shirt. Jimmy doesn’t even bother to change his shirt when he goes to the rally.
At the rally, Manish (who is glib and has a typical politician’s personality) remembers Jimmy. During Manish’s speech, Manish makes a point of singling out Jimmy as the guy who was Manish’s losing opponent in their election for senior-class president. Manish says that winning that election inspired Manish to become a professional politician. Manish then announces that whoever wins Richardson High School’s upcoming election for senior-class president will get a paid internship in Manish’s office and will get personal mentorship from Manish.
This announcement motivates Jimmy to re-enroll in Richardson High School, just so he can campaign to be senior-class president and win the election. It’s Jimmy’s weird way of trying to rewrite history and make Manish uncomfortable if Jimmy wins. But, of course, in a comedy like “Re-Election,” Jimmy is the one who ends up feeling uncomfortable for much of the story.
It just so happens that Richardson High School’s principal is Jimmy’s older sister Shawna Bauer (played by Kathy Guggenheim), who is shocked and embarrassed that Jimmy wants to re-enroll in the school. She suggests that Jim takes some adult-education courses to get the credits that he needs for a high school diploma. Jimmy adamantly refuses, so Shawna reluctantly agrees to “pull some strings” to get Jimmy re-enrolled.
Shawna makes a plea to her boss—school superintendent Donna McCloud (played by Kym Whitley)—who thinks it’s a bad idea for Jimmy to re-enroll. Shawna puts her reputation on the line to vouch for Jimmy, so Donna allows the re-enrollment, but with a warning that if Jimmy does anything at the school that would get Jimmy in big trouble, then Shawna could be fired. And it’s at that exact moment when you know Jimmy will do all sorts of things that will get him in trouble at the school.
Jimmy’s first mistake is approaching the students who aren’t eligible to vote for him. Some of the female students complain that Jimmy is a middle-aged creeper who comes across as a sexual predator. Back when Jimmy was in high school, the entire student body voted for senior-class president. Now, as Shawna informs Jimmy, the school’s current election rule is only a student council votes for senior-class president.
The student council election chairperson is a non-binary student named Noa Polly (played by Bex Taylor-Klaus), who is intelligent, friendly and passionate about social justice issues. Noa also gets some bullying at school for being non-binary. One of the things that Noa wants to change at the school is to have gender-neutral restrooms as an option. Shawna asks Noa to help guide Jimmy through the election process. And, as expected, a friendship develops between Jimmy and Noa.
Jimmy has two opponent candidates in this election: overachiever Faiza al-Ghamdi (played by Lucie Solène Allouche) and fun-loving Metetakee “Meat” Tolmochusse (played by Lane Factor), who are both very different from Jimmy. Faiza, whose goal is to get accepted into Yale University, is an ambitious “by the book” type of person who won’t hesitate to snitch on anyone who breaks rules. Meat, who is an offensive lineman for the school’s football team, is considered the “life of the party” and doesn’t take the election seriously at all.
In a classroom for social studies, teacher Ama Fernandez (played by Nathalie Kelley) gives the students information about 16th century philosopher/scholar Niccolò Machiavelli and his famous Machiavellian philosophy of winning at all costs and believing that “the ends justify the means.” Jimmy instantly decides that he will have a Machiavellian attitude toward this election. You know where all of this is going, of course.
Besides the big age difference that Jimmy has from the other students, he also faces the hurdle of trying to be relatable to teenagers, even though he’s woefully out of touch with what the teens at his school are like. Jimmy wrongly assumes that not much has changed in teenage life since he was a teenager. Time and time again (until it becomes somewhat of a tedious joke), there are scenarios where Jimmy feels like an outdated elder because he’s completely ignorant about social media and current technology.
How “behind the times” is Jimmy? He still uses an iMac from the late 1990s. He’s also embarrassed during a campaign debate when he says he’s never heard of TikTok star Charli D’Amelio when her name is mentioned. Predictably, Noa is the one who has to teach Jimmy how to use social media and what type of pop culture is well-liked by teenagers at their school. Certain things happen with Jimmy being on social media that both help and hurt his campaign.
“Re-Election” gets a little unfocused when it veers into a subplot about Noa having a romance with a schoolmate named Alaina (played by Paola Andino), who wants to keep the romantic part of the relationship a secret from most people because Alaina is afraid of the backlash she thinks she’ll get for dating a non-binary person. The movie abruptly introduces some melodrama over this tension in the relationship. The movie also gives a further glimpse into Noa’s personal life when Noa’s father (played by William Ragsdale) goes to a parent-teacher meeting at the school and expresses discomfort and prejudice about Noa being non-binary.
Another romance is plopped into the story so that Jimmy doesn’t look like a total loser: Jimmy and Ama (who was an insecure and nerdy teenager, played by Jasleen Narvaez in flashbacks) had a big crush on Jimmy when they were students at Richardson High School. Ama has now blossomed into a confident and beautiful woman. It’s shown that even though Ama would be considered “out of his league” under typical circumstances, she still has a crush on Jimmy, who treated her with kindness when they were schoolmate acquaintainces.
“Re-Election” is at its best when it shows the dynamics between Jimmy and Noa. Taylor-Klaus has some scenes that show Noa has more emotional depth than most of the movie’s characters, who often come aross as sitcom characters. Shawna’s backstory could have been explored a little better. All that’s revealed about Shawna in the movie is she is an uptight workaholic—in other words, the opposite of Jimmy.
Jimmy’s re-enrollment in school leaves his father Stan in a difficult situation of not having enough time to hire a replacement. Stan does a terrible job of being a sales clerk for his own store. Jimmy re-enrolled around the same time that another employee named Kai (played by Hayley Keown), an aspiring musician in her 20s, also quit working at the store so she could pursue her music career. The character of Kai is such an underwritten character (she shows up in the beginning and near the end of the movie), it looks like one of those unnecessary movie roles that was written as a favor to a friend. What goes on in the store during Jimmy’s absence is the weakest part of the movie.
“Re-Election” has some cliché situations that are usually in comedies about high schoolers, including underage drinking, bratty pranks and student cliques. Jimmy has an extreme way of handling his regrets from high school, but the movie has a clear message (without being too preachy) about how someone’s ethics and character can be measured by how that person achieves goals or accepts defeat. Saunders carries the movie with mostly skilled comedic timing, as “man child” Jimmy goes through a predictable story arc of learning some life lessons. “Re-Election” is an uneven but ultimately inoffensive option for people looking for a mildly amusing comedy about an adult reliving teenage years and experiencing some emotional growth along the way.
Picturehouse released “Re-Election” in select U.S. cinemas on October 10, 2025. The movie was released on digital and VOD on December 15, 2025.