Bottom’s is writer/director Emma Seligman’s second feature film following her 2020 debut Shiva Baby. Bottoms follows 2 best friends, Josie and PJ as they attempt to lose their virginity to 2 cheerleaders before they go off to college. But to do this they decide to start a girls-only “self-defense club” which is just a fight club.
The movie is completely absurd with people screaming over the intercom, teachers swearing, and everyone in the school being completely consumed with beating their football rivals to a ridiculous degree. The characters in Bottoms are all great, well-defined, and likable with a strong emotional core with great acting that made me grow to like all of the characters despite their shortcomings. A standout performance to me was Josie played by Ayo Edebiri who played the closest thing to a straight man in the movie and has fantastic chemistry with her co-lead Rachel Sennott. Everyone in the movie felt like they were giving it their all and having lots of fun on set and it came through in their performance. The movie had me growing to like the other members of the fight club as we learned more about them. My favorite fight club member was Hazel, played by Ruby Cruz who was constantly driving the story by misunderstanding after misunderstanding and constantly ramping up the pure insanity that is Bottom’s story. The most unexpected part of the cast was Marshawn Lynch’s performance as Mr.G the club advisor, he was great with most of his lines being improvised.
The music in the movie was great with some songs made specifically for it by Charli XCX and Leo Birenberg. Loud dramatic hyper-pop synths and blaring guitars helped set the mood of the movie, helping to exaggerate the absurdity in some scenes. It also worked perfectly with the fight scenes to make them super memorable and engaging.
The movie is also very well made with beautiful camera work from the cinematographer Maria Rusche with great use of focus that helped emphasize how the characters are feeling. Another great part was the sets used for the schools because of how unrealistic they looked which helped reinforce the satirical tone of the movie. The stunts were also very good with all of the fights feeling weighty and realistic while still being hilarious. The fight scenes also had a surprising amount of realistic violence with noses being broken and people getting bruised and battered constantly. The final fight at the end of the movie was hilarious and choreographed perfectly.
Bottoms is the funniest movie I have seen in a long time and had me crying from laughter multiple times. The movie is a non-stop rollercoaster of emotions and action that never fails to keep me entertained. I’m very excited to see more from Emma Seligman in the coming years because if Bottoms is anything to go off of I am very excited to see what she has planned for the future.
