Worth: $17.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edibiri, Ruby Cruz, Havana Rose Liu, Punkie Johnson, Miles Fowler, Nicholas Galitzine
Intro:
Bottoms comes up on top with a deliciously twisted sense of humour, impressive film craft, and an approach to satire that leaves nothing unchecked, not even its own existence as entertainment.
Since its premiere at SXSW in Austin back in March, this film has been dubbed ‘the lesbian answer to Fight Club’. And yeah, it’s about two disaffected lesbians (Rachel Sennott’s PJ and Ayo Edebiri’s Josie) who start a literal fight club at their high school as an excuse to get up close and physical with hot cheerleaders.
But frankly, if this film truly was as simple as that, writer/director Emma Seligman wouldn’t be the one who made it. Her debut Shiva Baby showed her right out the gate as a master of bending and contorting the expected tones of a given genre, taking the premise of a social cringe comedy and presenting it as a straight-up horror movie. And here, her vision of Rockbridge Falls High School takes cues from other subversive high school comedies like Heathers and diamond-in-the-post-Scary-Movie-desert Not Another Teen Movie, twisting the nuts of the genre until it reaches high notes that can shatter windows.
The comedy earns points by creating an irresistible balance between improv comedic energy in the foreground, and all manner of well-placed details in the background. The story moves forward through characters (and actors) just making shit up as they go, with the many quips landing some pretty effective sucker punches. Meanwhile, you’ll have extras that are actually worth keeping an eye on, and set design with such a phenomenal level of detail that the signage of a diner both references a classic in the lesbian cinematic canon, and provides a terribly wicked pun all on its own. The soundtrack, marking Charlie XCX’s film debut, is wall-to-wall Gen Z ear candy, and even the fight choreography adds to 2023’s already-impressive track record for action cinema.
Underneath all that high camp, there’s real smarts in the screenplay. While it toys with the violent masculine insecurity that codifies Fight Club, wholly embracing the gay subtext to the point where there is no sub to be seen, that ultimately ends up being an aside compared to the larger message to do with Queer representation in and of itself. There’s no heed paid to the idea that, in order to be authentic, it has to be ‘respectable’, leaning into the abrasiveness of its core characters and exposing the fairweather allyship surrounding them in the process. Like Bros, Bodies Bodies Bodies, and even Rotting in The Sun, it pushes back on the notion that the gays should be expected to appeal to some imposed paragon status – and be the only sane people in the asylum – to be recognised as people.
Bottoms comes up on top with a deliciously twisted sense of humour, impressive film craft, and an approach to satire that leaves nothing unchecked, not even its own existence as entertainment. It takes the chaotic nature of sex comedies and improv-centric American comedies in general, and turns it into a mission statement of true gay solidarity about what equality really means when we’re all such impulsive, abrasive, and messy people.
