Bottoms

Now here's a high school, that you'd love to go to, as anything goes - nothing's taboo, where two single girls, who aren't looking for pearls, start a club to find love, that gets quite misconstrued. There is punching and kicking, a shove with a push, the dialogues quite racy and might make you blush (if you're of a certain age and demographic), a battle of sexes, as pairs become exes, the romance is there, but it just isn't mush. Growing up can be tough if you're different from others, once being a woman kept you under the covers, now the rules of engagement, don't lead to enragement, and a progressive world - just will not be smothered.

Bottoms tells the story of two friend deeply in love with the school's top cheerleader. During a chance meeting, they discovered how they were horribly treated by their boyfriends. With the increasing reports of attacks on woman, they hatched a plan to help their crushed or actually just have loving hugs with them by opening up a 'Fight Club'-inspired self-defense club.

I would say that I have some reservations with Bottoms BUT I think the clearest thing about this is that Seligman is a great fundamental director.

I think the script for this could definitely hit harder. The lesbian elements, and the crassness and quotability, for a film like this can definitely been higher. The overall flow of the story and the commentary is somewhat haphazard BUT definitely leans on that its self serving and can be annoying - which is rare for modern films like this. Who tends to glorify it for the sake of cookie points. The allotment of improv somewhat disrupts whatever it is trying to go for at times.

Acting-wise, no one is really noteworthy. Senott and Ayo were fine. They are acting but did not elevate the material particularly. Very disappointed with Galitzine, especially since he is one hit away from stardom. His role here is a foil BUT can definitely amped up in Austin Abrams in Do Revenge kind of way. He just rested in pretty, which was disappointing.

BUT, I see a director who has a vision in what product she wants to tell. Its an imperfect film but I think Seligman can course herself into something big if she turned up the writing.

Recommended. Will definitely seek Shiva Baby.

As "Bottoms" (2023 release; 92 min.) opens, we are introduced to BFFs PJ (who has a crush on cheerleader Brittany) and Josie (who has a crush on cheerleader Isabel). After a "back to school" event, PJ and Josie decide to start a self-defense club, and Brittany and Isabel are among the girls joining the club...

Couple of comments: this is the second feature-length of writer-director Emma Seligman ("Shiva Baby"). Seligman co-wrote the script with Rachel Sennott who plays PJ. Elizabeth Banks is one of the movie's producers. The plot as it is is purposefully over the top and frankly meaningless. It just creates the excuse, as if one is needed, for zippy dialogue and satire of just about everything. I knew all of this beforehand. What I expected was a bunch of funny situations peppered with zany jokes. What I actually experience was something quite different. A smile here and there, but I couldn't really get into it, sorry. I fully realize that as a straight male I am not the intended target audience but bottom line is that funny is funny, no matter what, and this wasn't really it. This is of course a very subjective take but I can only convey what I experienced.

"Bottoms" premiered at the SXSW Festival in March, and was rolled out nationwide in theaters this Labor Day weekend. The Friday early evening screening where I saw this at my local arthouse theater here in Cincinnati was attended okay (about 10 people). For what it's worth, "Bottoms" is currently rated 95% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. If you are in the mood for a rowdy HS comedy, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

The "teen movie" is making a comeback, and the latest from Emma Seligman (of 2021's Shiva Baby) is one of the funniest, wildest, and most delightfully ridiculous in recent memory.

I certainly liked it better than last year's Do Revenge, which harkened back to the Jawbreaker era (and was only at points funny); this one has been described in similar terms, but perhaps more so as a modernized Animal House, or a John Hughes film where the girls take center stage and get to be the weirdo freaks and outcasts with schemes to get laid (still with girls) and attain popularity. Of course, then there's the crucial Fight Club call-back when a self-defense group is formed to help the female students at Rockbridge Falls protect themselves from the kind of movie jocks that never take off their shoulder pads even when having sex. (Even as I've tried to describe this plot, I defy you to try to predict where it winds up.)

Bottoms also continues the trend of making everyone fall in love with Rachel Sennott, whose face is becoming more and more prominent in my kino circles -- this may even be her absolute most hilarious performance. Her co-star Ayo Edebiri (another name I'm glad to be seeing more and more of lately), is similarly on-point, same with the various co-stars, all of them firing on all silly cylinders and bringing chaotic energy to even the most laid-back performances.

Every single person here seems to be having the time of their lives. It reminded me a bit of the energy in Barbie, only this one is -- in the best possible sense -- a lot more unhinged.

Its influences are many, as I said (one of its more "early 2000s" elements is the Avril Lavigne needle drop, which is up there with the Bonnie Tyler sequence as one of the most glorious and hilarious moments in the movie), but this is a film that does something truly special with its homages and love letters. I rarely say things like this, but if this movie spawns a bunch of sequels, where these characters go on Scooby-Doo-style adventures, say, or otherwise start playing around with other genre tropes in outrageous ways, I won't complain. This is a universe I'd love to see more of. We don't get many of those.

I understand that many people on here hated this. But since most of the complaints seem to be coming from the same faint-of-heart Zoomers who lost their minds over the content in No Hard Feelings (because an upbringing saturated with sexless Marvel movies will do that to you), I feel like I've made the right call here.

Bottoms

This teen comedy sees two high schoolers begin a fight club to be in close proximity with the cheerleaders they're interested in, and ultimately date them.

Bottoms is different from most teen comedies, this flick is raunchy, bloody, violent and dripping in satire. But for how over-the-top Bottoms becomes, it isn't funny, or not as funny as it should be, which is especially sad because the trailer promised a swell time. The zany jokes that a movie like this should have are missing; the comical moments here can't provide more than a smile.

The cast brought the best they could to this project, and most of the characters are distinct.

Themes of sexuality, friendship, women empowerment and identity are employed here.

Bottoms is a fresh idea, and would have worked with a funnier script.

6/10.