"Bottoms" review — How to start a fight club and win a girl's heart
“I really value when people use violence for me. It’s actually one of my love languages.”
High school. It’s a place of wonders for some and a place for horrors for others. Some experience years of social awkwardness and rejection, where they have yet to discover themselves as people and the sea of hormones and developing personhood do them no favours. For others, their high school years are some of the best years of their lives: years dedicated to creative adventures, sports, and social popularity. It’s been the decades-long tradition of American high school comedies to lampoon the common tropes of high school life and its associated hierarchy of social dominance, with a good deal of comedic escapades thrown in. Emma Seligman’s new comedy, Bottoms, puts itself firmly in this tradition, albeit with a distinctly contemporary spin.
At the bottom of Rockbridge Falls High School’s grand social pecking order, we find PJ and Josie, two self-described “ugly” and “untalented” gays. PJ and Josie (played by Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri respectively) have enjoyed years in this lowly place, always outshone by the cult of personality surrounding the football team. With a new school year on the horizon, PJ and Josie are trying to come up with a scheme that’ll reverse their social fortunes and help them pick up girls. The plan? Start a school-sanctioned fight club.
Bottoms is the latest film from writer/director Emma Seligman, who co-wrote this script with actress Rachel Sennott, the filmmaker behind the anxiety-fueled Shiva Baby (2020), in which Sennott also starred. Crafted with a strong comedic sensibility and a lovable sense of immaturity, Bottoms is the type of edgy high school-set comedy we have been lacking in recent years. It’s wild, weird, unrestrained with its humour, and appropriately contemporary in its presentation and themes. Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri are excellent co-leads, made all the better thanks to a great ensemble cast. Although it’s not as narratively strong as I would have liked and feels too short of its own good, Bottoms is a great time out at the movies and an excellent addition to the club of teen comedies.
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| Sennott and Edibiri in Bottoms. Photo via MGM. |
Now, for PJ and Josie, starting a fight club — or as it’s officially known, the “self-defence club” — was kind of an accident. After lightly grazing the knees of football star Jeff (played by Nicholas Galitzine), the idea of an all-girl self-defence club is a last-minute lie they construct to escape the ire of the Jeff-adoring school administration. Now with a promise to uphold, PJ and Josie need to figure out how to run a fight club before their first session and use it to woo their crushes. Thankfully, there’s interest in the club with some of the school’s other social rejects deciding to join to defend themselves from the football players of a rival school, although it does lead to Josie punching PJ in the face a little too hard and a rumour about a stint in juvie circulating around the school. Then, as they begin their second-ever meeting, in walks Isabel and Brittany (played by Havana Rose Liu and Kaia Gerber respectively), the two cheerleaders Josie and PJ are trying to win.
Bottoms might only be Seligman’s second feature, but she handles the project with grace and ease. While she isn’t reinventing the genre here, Seligman manages to get some surprisingly inventive camera work and creative blocking into the film that keeps the visual energy in step with the rapid-fire comedic pace. There’s some great use of fake blood, which leads to some surprisingly gory scenes of violence. There are also a number of clever and timely visual gags like one character dramatically crossing the word “feminism” out on a blackboard during a time of crisis. Seligman and Sennott’s script moves a mile a minute, delivering an onslaught of bits. And while not every joke may land for every viewer, the film doesn’t often linger on jokes, quickly replacing it with the next well-timed quip. The film feels especially geared towards the young people of today with topical sources of comedic material, although never feels awkward about it.
As the club picks up speed, PJ and Josie run into all sorts of issues. The first, of course, is finding a teacher willing to sign off on a school-sanctioned fight club. Here, they turn to Mr. G (played by Marshawn Lynch), an oblivious history teacher with a strenuous understanding of the material he has to teach. Thankfully, with some clever words about being an “ally,” Mr. G signs off on the whole ordeal. The second and more important problem is the upcoming Homecoming football game, which serves as the film’s third act. But the compounding problems of relationship drama, the juvie lie that’s spinning out of control, and the impending game are all making for a cloud of disaster coming for PJ, Josie, and the other members of the club.
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| Havana Rose Liu (centre) and the cast of Bottoms. Photo via HBO. |
The cast is comprised of a plethora of exciting up-and-coming talent, with Sennott and Edebiri being the highlights of the ensemble. Sennott’s been a strong presence in Hollywood, after starring turns in the aforementioned Shiva Baby and last year’s Bodies Bodies Bodies. While Bodies Bodies Bodies was a strong demonstration of Sennott’s comedic ability, Bottoms gives her a little bit more to work with. Edebiri is the film’s real emotional anchor. Josie makes for the film’s most interesting and compelling character. Edebiri manages to bring a lot of nuance to a character caught in a wild, ridiculous comedy, which gives Josie the push she needs to be an emotionally compelling figure as well.
And besides the two leads, there are so many other great characters and performances. Ruby Cruz is great as Hazel, an intelligent but unassuming friend of PJ and Josie. Havana Rose Liu and Kaia Gerber are excellent as cheerleaders Isabel and Brittany. Liu especially gets some great comedic moments, mostly revolving around her relationship with Jeff. Nicholas Galitzine plays Jeff, the narcissistic, himbo football captain and the school’s messiah. In a post-Barbie world, Jeff certainly feels like a lesser Ken, but Galitzine gets in some memorable line readings. It’s certainly a better showcase of his comedic talent than this year’s Red, White, & Royal Blue. The film’s biggest surprise is Marshawn Lynch, the 12-season NFL running back-turned-actor, who plays the delightfully problematic Mr. G. This might be Lynch’s first real feature film role, but it’s clear that the footballer belongs in the film world.
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| Director Emma Seligman (centre) with Edibiri and Sennott. Photo via MGM. |
The narrative itself is where the film breaks down the most. While there’s no doubt that Bottoms is funny as all get out — the crowd at my showing was in stitches nearly the entire time — the film’s internal logic is not as clear as it should be. At a brisk 88 minutes, the film keeps the story moving quickly. The jokes are flying in rapid succession, never overstaying their welcome and quickly replaced by another big laugh. While the actual comedic timing is excellent, the film doesn’t get the pathos it really wants out of its audience by cutting its ending too short and not giving enough time to its emotional moments. While there are notes of interesting arcs and characterization, the script doesn’t give the characters enough time to really become their own people. The third act feels far too rushed, with Seligman giving little time after the climactic scene to properly wrap up her characters’ stories in a way that feels satisfying. Tonally, Bottoms never really finds its own identity. The film flirts with absurdist sensibilities but never commits as much to the bit as it should. It feels caught between competing influences, wanting to be a somewhat grounded comedy, while also embracing the ridiculous elements of its narrative and characters, but never really comes to the perfect synthesis of the two.
Bottoms is now playing in theatres.
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