If I’m correct, and I know I am, a lot of you will go into this movie for either the chick from The Bear (Ayo Edebiri) or Rachel Sennott. Obviously I’m the latter. I found myself seeing a handful of reviews about this flick on my fyp or just across the internet generally. It looked fucking lit bro, and it did not disappoint.
Directed by Emma Seligman, Bottoms is a dark comedy centred around the plight of two lesbians on their hunt for pussy. That’s quite literally all it is, so imagine my surprise when I’m suddenly watching a murder mystery gone matrix style battle for the win. PJ and Josie are best mates who both happen to lesbians, this is important, and they’re facing the reality that they’re back in school after summer vacation without having dipped their toes into the vast lack of eating out and scissoring to their hearts content. All this mixed with a sort of stalker level crush towards some cheerleaders, results in them assaulting the Quarterback Jeff and somehow convincing the student population that they’re recovered from Juvie.
Together they start a female driven fight club as a means of getting on the in with the cheerleaders. The storyline has been done to death mind you not with two lesbian leads but it’s something we’ve come to expect from teen coming-of-age. But what was I not expecting? Spoiler alert time kids. That the Mum of their mate would wind up fucking Jeff the Quarterback, that there would be a murder plot with pineapple juice or that Josie would start telling people she was a murderer and then actually becoming a murderer.
This movie makes zero sense, it’s seriously a mindfuck from start to finish. There’s parts of it that are so stylistically unique and the best part is the humour and tone. It’s just fucking funny aye. ‘Bottoms’ feels like a natural progression in the queer teen satire subgenre, building off the world created in 2000’s ‘But I’m a Cheerleader,’ while touching on issues that are more relevant for today’s audience with a comedy that feels new and creative while still recognizing its forebears. When a new LGBTQ+ movie comes out, there’s often a discussion: Is it any good? Does it even matter? Shouldn’t queer people get to enjoy bad movies, too? It is a great movie that makes you laugh like a bad one does. The joy isn’t in the fact it’s queer, that’s a product of circumstance, but in the fact that Seligman doesn’t take herself seriously and it shows.
That being said, it’s not some amazing act of bravery as the main characters bare their souls (or a version of them) in an effort to have girls want to sleep with them. It’s actually kind of gross but those actions are not justified at any point. They’re called out on them. Or rather it’s exposed in a fucking gnarly fight scene in the gym with their mate, Hazel, getting their shit kicked in by some random caged boxer. It’s just that fucking weird. Watch it.
