Just when we thought we couldn’t get any more excited for Bottoms, a new clip drops with two straight minutes of Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott being comedic perfection. Bottoms had its premiere at the South by Southwest film festival back in March, and the rave reviews it received have raised high anticipation for its wide release on August 25.
R-rated comedies have been making a comeback this year, with flicks like No Hard Feelings, Cocaine Bear, and The Blackening reminding us of the merits of a good old raunchy, irreverent, and hilarious comedy.
Bottoms, though, is shaping up to be a particular delight as it’s an R-rated comedy centered on queer girls who start a fight club at their school. Best friends Josie (Edebiri) and PJ (Sennott) are the unpopular queer girls at their school, struggling to attract the attention of their fellow female classmates while also dealing with the bullies on the football team. They decide to kill two birds with one stone, creating a fight club to teach the girls at their school self-defense and to get a chance to get up close and personal with cheerleaders.
Hilariously, the film cast former professional football player Marshawn Lynch as the fight club’s coach, Mr. G. Considering Lynch was nicknamed “Beast Mode,” it’s not surprising that he helps the girls learn some pretty serious fight moves to dismantle toxic masculinity at their school. However, things get out of hand quickly as the girls launch an all-out war with the football team, resulting in a film that is equal parts horny and bloody.
Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott shine in new Bottoms clip
After Bottoms‘ red band trailer introduced us to the brilliant idea of a film centered around a femme fight club, MGM dropped an official clip that gave us a better look at the film’s satirical tone and fantastic leads. The clip sees Josie and PJ sent to the principal’s office, where he gives them a pretty offensive earful over an incident that happened between them and the star of the football team, Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine). Meanwhile, Josie’s and PJ’s response immediately gives us a sense of the hilarious and chaotic dynamic between the two stars.
While Josie is the quick-thinker and voice of reason who tries to get the girl out of the sticky situation, PJ is laconic, blunt, fed-up, and seemingly desperate to get them into further trouble. What’s even funnier is that it’s pretty easy to see Josie’s “good girl” attitude is just a guise, but she’s quite convincing with her hand-raising and polite greeting. She seems to be just the actor, schemer, and mastermind needed to make something like a fight club work. Meanwhile, PJ helps get to the desired result with her constant bizarre and slightly concerning interjections in Josie’s explanation.
The chaos somehow works, and the principal accepts a little of Josie’s calculated explanation and PJ’s capricious and eccentric interjections. Not only that, but they both get what they want. Josie doesn’t get expelled, and PJ’s sudden inspiration to start a fight club is granted permission to flourish. Their clashing personalities and the chaos that arises from two minutes of them being in the same room bodes well for the humor in Bottoms. Sennott and Edebiri are going to prove the merits of letting girls be funny, raunchy, and ironic in cinema, and we can’t wait for it.
(featured image: MGM)
