Will Sorg-
Two unpopular lesbians start a fight club to lose their virginity before high school is over. If you’re not immediately sold by that premise like I was then Bottoms may not be your kind of movie. Bottoms is an easy movie to love if you’re the right person. If you are a fan of camp, a fan of high school comedies, a lover of absurdist humor, or a queer zoomer you will probably love Bottoms.
Emma Seligman’s second feature film was a hidden gem released this year that has a huge following for its small indie-budget comedy stature. The film is like an R-rated Disney Channel Original Movie turned up to an eleven on the crazy scale. There are football games with deadly consequences, almost fourth-wall-breaking levels of bullying, slow-motion fight scenes and so many background jokes you probably need to play the movie at half-speed to catch all the gags. The film has such a wonderfully unhinged quality that makes the setting feel nearly fully detached from reality. By the time the second act has arrived, you feel like truly anything could happen, which is truly refreshing for a comedy film. Too often it feels like comedy movies nowadays are forced into easily marketable tropes and archetypes so they can be sold to streaming and left to rot in the back catalogs of Netflix or Hulu. So it is wonderful to see a comedy be so raunchy, violent, and completely unafraid to be different. As a result, the film is genuinely hilarious. Above all, it just has an undeniably fun energy.
The film is carried by that energy and the actors. Had this film had a slightly weaker cast or if the energy just wasn’t sustained enough I think this could have been a disaster. The script feels underwhelming and some of the improv doesn’t always land. A lot of the editing and camera work feels very unfocused and generally, this feels like a more cohesive film could’ve been made compared to what we got. Still, I give credit to doing an ambitious, niche film on a relatively low budget. I definitely can see a world where this movie was truly awful and thankfully the negatives are eclipsed by the many, many positives.
Seligman hit the director jackpot and has two longtime friends who happen to be amazing actors. Rachel Sennot and Ayo Edebiri are hysterical in this movie. They’re both wonderfully talented and clearly work well with each other and their director. Edebiri specifically dominates this movie with a lot of the charm and fun radiating specifically from her character. Marshawn Lynch steals the show as Mr. G, the fight club’s irresponsible faculty advisor and a man who probably should’ve never been allowed a teaching license. All in all, this is a stellar cast that clearly meshes well with the director and her crew.
This is definitely something to watch for pure fun. It rarely takes itself seriously and I always am a fan of movies that poke fun at the 80s teen comedy. Watch it with a group of friends, enjoy the off-the-wall insanity, and feel that wonderful feeling of low-stakes fun that the best comedies provide.