Director Emma Seligman takes us on the fast-paced raunchy high school sex comedy that is “Bottoms.”
The movie follows long-time best friends PJ and Josie, played by actresses Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri, who have one ultimate goal before graduating high school: getting laid.
“Bottoms” is Emma Seligman’s second collaboration with Rachel Sennott, after the critically acclaimed 2020 release “Shiva Baby.” Sennott and Seligman take us on a wild ride in the journey of two bottom of the barrel gay high schoolers as they finally get laid.
Teen sex comedy is a genre that feels derivative and overdone.
How many more times do we have to watch teenagers and their journeys in exploring their sexualities? Why is this always something that is set in high school? Also, why is it almost always straight men and their journeys?
Seligman takes an opportunity to turn the overdone genre on its head, not only by making the main characters queer women, but to completely parody the genre and make fun of it for what’s always been: weird and absurdist.
We start off with PJ and Josie deciding to create their own fight club at school to get themselves out of trouble for “hurting” the high school’s most popular football player, who is of course named Jeff, played by Nicholas Galitzine.
However, the fight club is only a front, as PJ wants to use it to gain the attention of the two popular girls in the school, Isabel played by Havana Rose Liu and Brittany played by model Kaia Gerber, who she and Josie want to have sex with.
After starting a rumor they served time in juvenile detention, even going as far as saying they’ve killed someone, (who then came back to life two minutes later, according to Josie), it gains the attention of not just Isabel and Brittany, but other girls who feel outcast at their school, much to PJ’s annoyance.
All of their endeavors are made possible by their also queer friend Hazel, played by newcomer actress Ruby Cruz, who genuinely just wants to start a fight club for protection, even though she knows what PJ and Josie’s true intentions are.
Watching this movie felt like I just drank three Monster Energy drinks, while getting stabbed in the chest with adrenaline.
I was completely enthralled with everything that was happening on the screen, I wasn't expecting the fight scenes to be as violent and chaotic as they were, but the whole time I just wanted them to keep going.
I loved Ayo Edebiri as Josie so much in this film. After her meteoric rise with her supporting role in FX’s “The Bear,” I want nothing more than to keep seeing her in as much TV and film as possible.
Rachel Sennott plays the really crappy friend well, constantly lying through the show and putting herself before others, you would almost want to hate her if she wasn’t so funny.
The plot definitely follows the formulaic teen sex comedy plotline, while PJ and Josie are executing their really bad idea with the help of a friend, it starts to kind of work off in their favor - but by the end, all hell breaks loose with a conclusion you most certainly won’t be expecting.
Another highlight in the film is football player Marshawn Lynch’s perfromance, playing the teacher and advisor to the fight club.
All of the characters are absurdist parodies of themselves, imitating stereotypes of the American high school experience.
PJ and Josie themselves understand where they are on the stereotypical ladder of popularity at their high school, and it’s not solely because they’re both queer, but instead because they’re “ugly, gay and untalented.”
A short way of saying, “if you don’t really give us much to work with and you don’t entertain us as gay people, you suck.”
“Bottoms” doesn’t take itself seriously, which is my favorite part about it.
It's a refreshing comedy on two girls literally just trying to get laid and save their school from their rival football team, all the while goofing off with outrageous and gratuitous amounts of violence.
It’s all I could ask for in a movie.
