Film Review: Bottoms

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In a film year that is not hurting for genuinely funny and well made movies, it’s no surprise that Bottoms comes in with a lot of expectations. With a premise this silly and talent this good, you’d be hard pressed to expect anything less than a rip-roaring time at the movies. Blessedly for us, Bottoms is an excellent film, coming through like a hurricane to disrupt the movie year and film-going consciousness.

Bottoms tells the story of PJ and Josie, two unpopular lesbians, who don’t amount to much more than wallflowers at best and people to make fun of at worst. But as seniors in high school, they are desperate to have some experiences of the carnal variety so that their whole time ate school isn’t for naught. The two begin concocting lies about how they spent their summer and find that it gains them a bit of street cred and a new hope towards making their crushes more than that. It certainly helps when you “run over” the star football player and are forced to defend your actions to the principal. It’s in this moment of stress that the two come up with the brilliant, and completely above board idea, to start a self defense class to you know help their fellow women. Not at all to get into their pants.

What starts out as a very foolish lie becomes a real possibility when girls from all walks of life decide to join their club. The blood flows and the bruises form, but through violence, the women become close, especially Joise and Isabel and PJ and Brittany. Empowerment flows through them like wildfire and soon they’re walking confidently, befriending classmates, and breaking up with boyfriends in the case of Isabel.

But not everyone is happy about all this female empowerment. The football team, lead by Tim (Miles Fowler) and Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine), would rather be focused on their deadly rival, but find themselves at war with the women and doing all they can to stop them in their tracks.

If you read that synopsis and couldn’t help but laugh, get ready for a movie that will almost force the laughter you didn’t know you had out of you. The script by Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott is razor sharp, giving the audience amazing characters and hijinks galore. I appreciated the varied styles of humor as a movie this amped up could have easily felt like too much but these two make magic. From the lewd jokes, sitcom situations, and framing (there’s an out of focus character that made me laugh as much as what was happening in focus), there’s a cornucopia of foolery.

Delivering this is an incredibly game ensemble of actors led by the delightful Sennott and Ayo Edebiri as PJ and Josie. Each woman has firmly defined their character and through great timing make you root for these women even as they are making terrible decisions. While the women make the movie, you’d be hardpressed to not point out just how amazing football player turned actor (and Bay Area legend) Marshawn Lynch is. He’s just delightful.

Bottoms doesn’t have much in the way going against it, though I will say how the secret is ultimately revealed felt a little flat. Thankfully the payoff was incredibly rich and as foolish as anything you’re likely to see in a movie this year. Being over the top might be Bottoms biggest draw, but what makes the movie special is its heart and characters.

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Terence Johnson

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