Even an offhand debate between a few students late in the film about whether or not Bush is a "retard," while not exactly insightful, nonetheless portrays a student body for whom politics%u2014or at least arguing about it%u2014is essential.

Full Review | Aug 8, 2009

The film sets just the right tone: with inventive music choices and wonderfully piquant moments plucked from what must have been hundreds of hours of footage, Frontrunners is consistently entertaining.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 24, 2008

Perhaps it's the bright, decent, appealing kids seen here, or just the idyllic portrait Suh paints of student life at Manhattan's prestigious Stuyvesant High School that gives the picture its charm.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 24, 2008

The kids now know how to play the game of college admissions, but they seem more jaded by their knowledge than entitled to success. And their exasperation with the process, their peers, and themselves is endlessly, illuminatingly watchable.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 24, 2008

Sure, it's a skewed view through adolescent eyes, but it's one that still speaks to the aspirations, agendas, image-making and spin control behind a real, grown-up political election.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 23, 2008

The student election plays out as a microcosm of the race for the Oval Office.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 17, 2008

These candidates work hard and play fair, and when they screw up or slack off, they accept the consequences without complaint. Simply because, they believe, that's the way things should be done.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 17, 2008

what makes the movie fascinating is the particulars of the campaigns, from the way the candidates consider how to choose a running mate that will appeal to the right cliques, to how a win would improve their chances to get into a top college.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Oct 17, 2008

Ultimately, pic's fascination lies with the personalities and strategies of the candidates themselves.

Full Review | Oct 16, 2008

Without forcing comparisons, Frontrunners finds parallels between the election at Stuyvesant High and the current national election.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 15, 2008

These politicians may be teens, but they grapple with constituencies, campaign strategies, and demands on their time with a spirit and seriousness of purpose suitable for the highest office in the land.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Oct 15, 2008

Tactfully [keeps] away from actual policy details and emotionally sticky stuff, cutting for punchlines, and overlaying campaigning montages with a playlist shuffle of kazoo-whimsical indie feyness.

Full Review | Oct 15, 2008

The film is clearly intended as a microcosm of the US presidential elections, although the students' cutthroat tactics are bush-league in comparison.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Oct 13, 2008

Lacking characters as cartoonishly entertaining as the bee geeks in Spellbound, director Caroline Suh doesn't dig deep enough.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 13, 2008