Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

I just re-watched this great short film. And I have a new interpretation of it. I'll admit to being a bit of a Anders Thomas Jensen fanboy, as I love his humor.A year or two ago, I ran into the new term "virtue signaling". For the uninitiated: "Virtue signaling is the expression or promotion of viewpoints that are especially valued within a society, especially when this is done primarily to enhance the social standing of the speaker." This is often seen when a person labels and shames someone else for "wrongthink". Being racist, sexist, homophobic etc. Often for things that are completely innocent, or rather mild.I see the main character as virtue signaling. Already early on, he labels his friend a racist, because he doesn't want to drink Mexican beer. Thus attempting to shame his friend, and showing how virtuous he himself is. He continues in this vein, though with more reason, as he refuses cab-rides, because he finds the opinions of various cabdrivers objectionable. Thus he ends up traveling by foot, and fails to complete his original goal, of getting his vote cast, before polling closes. In an ironic twist, and perhaps a bit of karma, he himself gets labeled a racist, and physically assaulted. My possible interpretations are that people who are busy labeling and judging others, maybe should spend some time examining themselves.That being quick to judge people, and take offense, may well condemn people unfairly, for no reason, or for being verbally clumsy. And miss examining a persons actual opinions and intentions.In the end, the main character asks for the local beer brand, rather than the Mexican beer. Does that mean that he actually wanted the local beer all along, and he learned that pretending to like something else, to signal his virtue as tolerant and multicultural, really wasn't worthwhile?Or is it the more sinister interpretation, that he becomes jaded, gives up on his ideals, and tries to fit in?Virtue signaling as a concept may be new, but the underlying mechanism is age-old. Pretending to be something you are not, to gain status.To quote Tycho Brahe: "non haberi sed esse" A notion that can be found in many variations, and far back in time.

ELECTION NIGHT is a clever film about racism. The film begins with a man meeting a friend at a bar. When the friend says on off-hand racist remark, the first man confronts him instead of sitting silently. While almost impossible to believe, the first man then realizes that the election is being held and he forgot to vote--and runs to the polls before they close. On the way, again and again, he gets in cabs where the drivers are total racist pigs and are amazed that he's offended--as if everyone of "us" is in agreement about "them". This is an interesting idea and didn't come off as too preachy.When he finally did arrive at the polling station, there was a very ironic little twist that made the film and made me think of the saying "no good deed goes unpunished". The only sour note to the film was the very last scene in the bar--it was really impossible to believe that this one incident at the poll could change such a good man so quickly. Still, it was a very clever and interesting film.By the way, this film is part of the CINEMA 16: European Shorts DVD. On this DVD are 16 shorts. Most aren't great, though because it contains THE MAN WITHOUT A HEAD, COPY SHOP, RABBIT and WASP, it's an amazing DVD for lovers of short films and well worth buying.

I enjoyed Election Night the first time I saw it and laughed out loud at times. It is a film I recommend to people and that I have watched again. However, a sober re-viewing of this film made my laughter stick in my throat. It is a provocative piece, with a message that perhaps the filmmakers themselves did not intend, and for that reason I recommend viewing, but do not endorse the message in Election Night.An Aid Agency worker, Peter, leaves a bar to try and reach the polling station to vote. His castigation of his friend and the barman in the opening scene reveal his humanitarian, multicultural leanings. His condemnation of racists is clear and concise.What follows is his quest to vote in the election, and like all quest tales, the valiant hero faces a series of ever-more difficult challenges to achieve his goal. Utlimately, as befits a tale based on a protagonist out to accomplish a mission, the final test is to identify and overcome a weakness in his own character. For Peter, it is the revelation that he is just as capable of racist sentiments as the next man. And this is where the film starts to veer off-course. Peter is punished for his weakness by a punch in the nose, delivered by a character who reveals the complexity of attitudes to race by his confused comments. I do not doubt that the reasons for taking the narrative in this direction are to do with fulfilling the structural demands of cinematic storytelling, and are not the result of the filmmakers wish to make an anti-liberal statement.However, the effect is one and the same. Humbled, defeated, Peter returns to the bar and symbolically, through his apathetic lies and rejection of foreign beer, 'converts' to the other side. Sure, this pathetic wretch toasting his Danishness at the end is funny, but it means the end note of the film is, 'Don't try to be tolerant, it isn't worth it and the recipients don't appreciate it anyway.'I don't think this is reading too much into the film. The co-opting of Peter to the racist side at the end means the film endorses (I am sure unintentionally) the views of Peter's bar friend at the beginning - that attempting to understand and sympathize with other cultures and peoples just isn't worth the bother. This is a film well worth watching, especially in culture studies classes as a primer for discussion. But try to think, as you watch, who you are laughing with, and who you are laughing at. And at what point do you cross the line?

A man has forgotten to vote, 10 minutes before closing the polls, he takes a cab but The Taxi-driver turn him on with racist comments, he change to others cabs - but the same situation occurs.Humorous short movie, that indicate that intolerance is found at many levels.