While roommates the two wrote short films and started writing Citizen Ruth.
If anything, Payne wishes "Citizen Ruth" had been more vicious.
After meeting him at a party, Payne cast him as a prosecutor in "Citizen Ruth."
"Citizen Ruth," is about how an intensely moral issue - is one for or against abortion?
Here's the thing about "Election," which, unlike "Citizen Ruth," is quite a box-office success.
And "Citizen Ruth" can easily be forgiven for not finding a fully satisfying ending.
The advertising campaign for the film itself takes a disingenuous position: that "Citizen Ruth" is not really about abortion.
However fearful its advertising campaign, "Citizen Ruth" itself takes a huge gamble and wins.
As "Citizen Ruth" proves, sometimes satire is the most illuminating position of all.
Citizen Ruth is a 1996 comedy which focuses on pregnancy and abortion controversy.