Bottoms hit me right where I needed it to. Delivering over the top, absolutely batshit comedy in the best way possible. It harkens back to the 2000s comedy films that throw reason out the window in favour of absurdity. There is an odd level of comfort that I felt watching this film, some familiarity in the characters, setting and premise. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel for comedy but does enough for me to make itself stand out as one I would choose over other films when I go to rewatch.
PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) are ugly untalented gays in high school, with a passion for getting laid before the end of the school year (THE setup for a teen comedy). We start at the county fair, where PJ and Josie lie to Hazel (Ruby Cruz) about being in juvie over the summer to avoid her talking to them. That of course has the opposite effect and gives Hazel reason to be intrigued by them. PJ and Josie are more interested in the sexual stylings of Brittany (Kaia Gerber) and Isabelle (Havana Rose Liu) respectively. They are, of course, incredibly awkward and fail miserably at wooing the girls.
Not until the girls get into a bit of Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine) situation with Isabelle, do they make any sort of headway with her. Jeff is the star of the football team, and rarely seen without his full football gear (including cleats). He’s dating Isabelle and gets very lightly tapped by Josie’s car, while arguing with Isabelle, leading to a deep rooted and furious rivalry between the gays and the football team.
To avoid expulsion, the girls form a self defence club, in anticipation for a particularly violent game coming up with the rival football team. The girls of the school feel unsafe, and PJ and Josie want to change that. That motivation does play less of a role than the possibility it may earn them brownie points with Isabelle and Brittany, leading to them completing their school year goal though, starting off the club as a lie (another classic high school comedy trope).
The fight club expands and the girls bond as they go, growing closer and learning more about themselves. This all builds up to that all important football game, where hijinks, tomfoolery, shenanigans and chaos, doth ensue.
So that’s the premise, with a high quantity of jokes embedded in between, whether verbal or just a visual gag like the football team in full uniform every class, the teacher reading a porn magazine in class or one of the students being locked in a cage for the entire duration of the film.
The jokes are silly, with a base in light social commentary, never bleeding into a preachy or overly meta. I don’t think there is necessarily a problem with meta or obvious jokes about inequality, but this film is not as concerned with righting the wrongs of the world with this film, and instead just making a teen comedy that sprinkles in some social issues when apt.
There are some pretty out there jokes too, lightly pushing the line of acceptability. The absurdity of the film allows for these jokes because there’s no groundedness in them. They are presented, laughed at and then we move onto another.
I didn’t find the jokes to be too much in their velocity, balancing the light story and character building with jokes that genuinely kept me laughing out loud the entire film.
The third act of this film really rockets into the insane nature of this world, where consequences don’t really come into play. There is a lack of adult intervention in the lives of these teens, and zero repercussion for actions they take. The flow isn’t broken up with a standard detention scene or a scary night in jail. They just do things and nothing happens to them for it, the end.
For me, there was no dud in the cast of this, everyone playing their role perfectly. Whether that was Kaia Gerber being the untouchable popular girl or Marshawn Lynch who has some of the best lines of this film as the supportive teacher going through a divorce and a journey of his thoughts on feminism.
Both Ayo Edebiri and Rachael Sennott bring such an ease in chemistry and clear improvisation to their roles that feels so free and natural in such an unnatural setting. Ayo, in particular, brings heart to the film, being the more redeemable character in the pairing. You root for her and her successes throughout the film, often siding with her in moments of struggle. I have a very rational love for Rachael Sennott after seeing her in Bodies Bodies Bodies and Shiva Baby, so it was nice to be conflicted on the morals of her character, She gets to play someone with a bit more depth than in Bodies Bodies Bodies, and show that Shiva Baby side with a bit more insanity and moral questionability.
Not a bad performance, but an unfortunate year for Nicholas Galitzine to have to play the dumb jock role which was just done to its peak by Ryan Gosling in Barbie. Having this point of comparison does make it feel a little harder to fully enjoy what he is doing.
The technical side is not left to the side, with some interesting camera work going on, making the school look very sterile in its presentation. They opt for quite a lot of wide shots, busy shots where there is usually action going on outside of the main conversation, providing some sort of visual gag.
At parts, there is some patchy ADR work but it's barely noticeable within the story, so shut up. The music on the other hand, was curated by international pop woman Charli XCX, giving us some beautiful needle drops that are at times so hilariously on the nose, and meticulously timed to the song that it can feel like a music video.
Emma Seligman and Rachael Sennott prove to be a pairing that I will be locked into for anything in the future. I will also watch Ayo Edebiri in anything and praise her forever. Bottoms is exactly the switch off, easy and reliable watch that I wanted it to be. I am so excited for this to be on streaming so I can revisit this in ways that I used to with 2000s comedies. This feels like a revival of this genre, but in a way that I think will be hard to outdo. There is a pretty intense amount of care put into this film to keep it on the line of cliche and parody without leaning too heavily on either side.
Also, there is a blooper reel, I almost cried.
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