Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes:
BOTTOMS, a refreshingly unique raunchy comedy, focuses on two girls, PJ and Josie, who start a fight club as a way to lose their virginities to cheerleaders. Their bizarre plan works. The fight club gains traction and soon the most popular girls in school are beating each other up in the name of self-defense. But PJ and Josie find themselves in over their heads and in need of a way out before their plan is exposed.
Review:
Bottoms is another raunchy comedy exploring lesbian expression and online culture. Unlike the adult focused Joyride, released earlier this year, Bottoms has a high school focusโ its absurdities and the length some girls will go to achieve romantic success. Here, the queer duo try to leverage shooter anxiety with lies about their โgangstaโ credentials.
PJ (Rachel Sennott, who also co-wrote) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) are the โugly, untalented gays.โ They pine either openly or silently for two popular girls (Kaia Gerber and Havana Rose Liu). When they accidentally lightly tap the star quarterback (Nicholas Galitzine) with their car their gangsta credentials are amplified by the rumor mongering friend (Ruby Cruz) who heard them joking and riffing on their pretend time in juvenile detention. They parlay this image into starting a girlโs fight club that will allow other shy and lonely girls closer to their crushes.
This basic plot allows for all kinds of improvisations. Itโs all suppose to be camp, outrageous details taken to the absurd, but it never feels that way, especially when everybody around the girls take it deadly seriously. The subplot which involves the kidnapping and attempted murder of a rival quarterback is total cringe. As the heat is turned up it becomes increasingly squeamish to realize that the frogs in the boiling pan of water are not going to jump out. Bottoms disjointedness amplifies this feeling. Others might find two girls punching themselves out funny. I donโt. The palpable screen chemistry between Sinnott and Edebiri makes it even more disconcerting, a failed attempt at a comic theater of cruelty.
The violence at the core of the film is never undercut by the humor. The girls banding together to protect themselves from this violence shows how unprotected vulnerable girls are left with no other recourse.
Bottoms tries to be progressive but only feels regressive as it drags on. Itโs a movie where its relevance make it irrelevant.
Bottoms gets a 3.0 out of 5 or a B.
Credits:
Directed by
Written by
- Emma Seligman
Produced by
- Elizabeth Banks
- Max Handelman
- Alison Small
Starring
- Rachel Sennott
- Miles Fowler
Cinematography
Maria Rusche
Edited by
Hanna Park
Music by
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
- March 11, 2023(SXSW)
- August 25, 2023(United States)
Running time
91 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$11.3 million
Leave a Reply