Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri team up for a slice of enjoyable silliness...
Director: Emma Seligman
Starring: Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, Ruby Cruz
Running time: 91 minutes
Bottoms belongs to a tried and tested high school formula that includes big hitters such as Mean Girls, Superbad and American Pie. Despite this, the film does actually deliver something that feels fresh, thanks to the fact that no one has attempted to make an all-female, all-queer version of these films before. Although, honourable mention to Olivia Wilde with Booksmart.
The film, directed by Emma Seligman, centres around teenagers PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri), who are obsessed with two cheerleaders in their school. However, as tradition dictates, the girls are more interested in the jock boys and don’t know they exist. So far, so Superbad... but here is where the comparisons end, as Bottoms is actually funny.
All in all, Bottoms is enjoyable, fun and light-hearted - and isn’t that what we all need right now?
After Josie causes a minor accident with her car, the two girls somehow gain a reputation for surviving juvenile detention. The next obvious thing to do is set up a fight club in their school, which is overseen by a hilarious Marshawn Lynch as Mr G, in the hopes of attracting the cheerleaders - one of whom is played by Cindy Crawford’s actual daughter. Instead of this, the club becomes full of 'losers', much to their disappointment.
As a queer person myself, I wasn’t raised on enjoyable, female, queer-centric films, so I would have devoured something like this. It’s refreshing to see something take on the clique tropes with great silliness, but its existence points out how wild it is that we haven’t had something like this already by now.
That said, the film knows exactly what it is, so it doesn’t try too hard to be something it isn’t. Some reviews unfairly mention the violence in this, and let's be real, there are some punches. However, it feels a bit Mean Girls to mention this when Fight Club has been in existence since 1999. All in all, Bottoms is enjoyable, fun and light-hearted - and isn’t that what we all need right now?
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