Bottoms might seem like a regular comedy on paper but … well actually, nothing about this movie is “regular.” The Emma Seligman film takes us into the high school world of Josie (Ayo Edebiri) and PJ (Rachel Sennott). What might have been a typical high school experience for them is far from normal for the rest of us as the Vikings are gearing up for their big game against their rivals. The problem? Well, someone might die. Also, these girls want to get laid! You decide which is more pressing.
A simple premise—two high school girls trying to lose their virginity before they graduate—turns into something so much more by the absurdity that Seligman and Sennott bring to their script. The tone slips seamlessly between classic teen comedy, dark satire, and off-the-wall absurdity. It’s easy to lose yourself in the chaos of PJ and Josie as they create a genuinely violent fight club to try and get girls to notice them.
While the movie’s plot is centered around the two girls’ attempts to have sex, Bottoms is really a movie about friendship. It’s also absolute insanity, with bursts of farcical but visceral violence, like a man getting killed on a mascot’s sword at one point and a character who is obsessed with bombs. Those more absurdist elements work with a movie like Bottoms because it’s so grounded in such a familiar setting. Throwing all caution to the wind to let girls just punch each other in the face because their school only cares about football? Perfection.
For years, we watched these sorts of weird, sex-centric comedy movies have male leads and go to the guys and what is so good about Bottoms is that its male characters are only used as cartoonish props in the arcs of its lead female characters.
Let the girls be absurd
I could start listing all the out-there comedies that we love with male leads and we’d be here all day. Think Hot Rod or even movies like Superbad. They focused on men or boys trying to reach one simple goal the outrageous means they used to get there. You cannot, really, do the same for female led comedies. Yes, there are some, and that list has been growing longer in recent years. We’ve got movies like Booksmart and Blockers, and this year alone we’ve gotten Joy Ride and now Bottoms. But what makes this specific brand of comedy so fun is that you never know where you’re going with it.
It’s so off the rails that you can’t predict what is going to happen next. Seeing both Sennott and Edebiri really nail the grounded friendship of their characters in the midst of a high school fight club is what makes Bottoms so fun to watch.
(featured image: MGM)
