Directed by Emma Seligman
Where & When: AMC The Grove 14, Los Angeles, CA. September 5, 2023 7:30 PM
"Bottoms" is a teenage, romantic comedy from filmmaker, Emma Seilgman that is very far removed from your standard comedy in this genre. What Seilgman's film delivers is unhinged, extremely dark and features a couple of horny, young lesbians as our unexpected protagonists in this wildly, offbeat story. And while it's not entirely successful, "Bottoms" is a teen comedy that boldly presents queerness as a natural state of being, propelled by an insane, manic energy and off-the-wall laughs.
PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) are best friends in high school who happen to be nerdy, unpopular and lesbians. They are both lusting after two of the popular cheerleaders at school who are also best friends: Josie has the hots for Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) while PJ is infatuated with Brittany (Kaia Gerber). After an incident involving an argument between Isabel and her boyfriend, Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine), the quarterback for the school's football team, a rumor spreads around that PJ and Josie spent the summer in juvenile detention and had beaten up Jeff during this quarrel. Now this didn't actually happen yet none of the participants correct this misinformation especially after the girls are called into the principal's office demanding an explanation for injuring the quarterback (who was never seriously hurt but enjoying the attention).
In order to avoid expulsion, PJ comes up with the excuse they had been practicing in order to start a self-defense club for the girls at school. This leads to a plan to actually start a fight club and after PJ points out this will be a great way for them to meet girls, a reluctant Josie agrees to the crazy idea. With teacher, Mr. G. (former football player, Marshawn Lynch) on board as an advisor, the girls begin teaching female students how to fight. But PJ is disappointed that the girls attending are not attractive enough until Isabel and Brittany show up for lessons.
Seligman first became noticed with her NYU senior-thesis short, "Shiva Baby" which was later selected for the South by Southwest film festival in 2018. The Canadian-born filmmaker later further developed this comedy about a young bisexual Jewish woman (also played by Sennott) who attends a shiva with her parents where her complicated love relationships collide into a feature length film. I will admit I was not a big fan of this film, but I certainly recognized her potential gifts as a director and admired what she accomplished in telling a rarely told story in cinema involving the "B" in the LGBTQ communities.
"Bottoms" began with Seligman and Sennott wanting to create a film that featured queer characters prominently in your standard Hollywood-style comedy. I'm sure there were several films that sparked their imagination, but the clear inspiration behind "Bottoms" seems to be "Heathers", the 1989 cult film that has gone on to become the quintessential dark teen comedy. And while they both share in gleeful, irreverent humor, quirky characters and unexpected bursts of bloody violence, "Bottoms" is not fully formed enough to become memorable in the high school comedy canon. The script by Seligman and Sennott features some emotionally grounded moments in between the weird, zany humor but the writers are just not there yet to make it work together cohesively. At times in the film, some moments are heavy-handed, the pacing is ragged, the jokes are not always sharp and the motivations behind some of the characters are wobbly. And as "Bottoms" progresses to its conclusion, the situations become far more surreal and shockingly brutal, making it feel like we have suddenly entered into another movie.
As a teen comedy, "Bottoms" feels fresh and modern by successfully challenging traditions of the genre and aggressively flipping expectations regarding gender and sexual identity. The film is further elevated by solid performances and a hilarious, edgy vibe. But with a little more work to refine some details, "Bottoms" would have easily shifted from a good to a great comedy.
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