Film Review: Bottoms (2023)
“Bottoms” is one of oddest, and greatest, film’s I’ve seen in a long time. I came across it on TikTok and was intrigued largely by it’s co-stars Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) and Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby), the latter is also the co-writer of “Bottoms”. With some convincing of Conor to use our precious Sunday evening slot for a movie billed as a raucous teen comedy was risqué but when mentioning Kaia Gerber was also part of the main cast he was well and truly sold. I had no idea what to expect but I can’t stress this enough, it’s absolutely class. If this was a fancy, established film blog, I’d probably suggest that “Bottoms” is an instant cult-classic.
Listen to the big guys
According to Rotten Tomatoes, “Bottoms” is “a refreshingly unique raunchy comedy, that 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-defence.” So yeah, it sounds a wee bit mental but sometimes you need some crazy in your life.
Absurdist comedy
The film is satirical towards typical high school comedies with all the usual tropes, high school jocks, beautiful popular girls and an obsession with the state football championship. Our leads, PJ and Josie, are the unpopular and lost lesbians often referred to as the “ugly gays” by the principal. The writing packs a lot of punches towards these tropes such as the hot, popular girl can also be smart and entrepreneurial, the kid the jock bullies of course plots of bomb related revenge on his classmates and the teacher supporting feminism holds a magazine titled “Big Booty Babes”. Everything is purposeful and genius. Throughout the film there are genuine WTF scenes that all culminate in the final fight scene where the female fight club injure/murder the competing football team and afterwards all celebrate that they are friends again. It’s whacky and wildly entertaining.
Ayo!
Ayo Edebiri deserves her own paragraph for the below standout monologue that is a completely improvised. After her character Josie embarrasses herself in front of her crush, she spirals and declares this incredible piece of cinema. The lines Ayo deliver osculate between deadpan to heightened extremes but they are always spot on. It helps with the incredible writing in this film, some notable lines from Josie include “Annie, you may be a black Republican, but you're the smartest out of all of us.” and “You don't care about feminism. Your favourite show is Entourage!”
Rachel ❤
When I grow up I want to be Rachel Sennott. At only 28 years old, she has proved herself to be a nuanced actor from comedy to drama and an incredible comedy writer. Her brand of comedy is satirical towards youth and internet culture and this is highly evident in “Bottoms” through such confronting dialogue. I watched her starring role in “Shiva Baby” and it’s like that episode of “The Bear” Fishes, where you feel so uncomfortable towards what is on screen but you can’t look away, now that’s talented writing and acting. I’m excited to see what Ayo and Rachel produce in the future because this film is a witty breath of fresh air at a time when that’s what we need.