New to UK cinemas on Friday, following on from its US release back in August, is the LGBTQ+ teen sex comedy, Bottoms. The movie – directed and co-written by Emma Seligman – stars Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, Ruby Cruz, Havana Rose Liu, and Kaia Gerber, and tells the story of two unpopular high school girls who set up a fight club in order to have sex with cheerleaders.
In the movie, PJ and Josie are two extremely unpopular students, who no one likes. The girls are lesbians, trying to make their way through a largely male dominated school environment, and they simply don’t fit in.
PJ and Josie are also desperate to sleep with someone before they finish high school. The pair have had their eyes on a couple of cheerleaders for a while, and try to catch their attention without success.
But when a fellow student is assaulted by a football player from a rival school, this gives PJ and Josie an idea. If they can set up a self defence class for women, which promotes inclusivity and empowerment, they can spend lots of time with other girls, and hopefully woo some of them in the process.
Pitching the classes as a sort-of fight club, PJ and Josie manage to convince a number of students to take part. But will their plans to use the classes as a way to hook up with girls pay off, or will the truth come out?
Humorous, absurd, and occasionally brutal, Bottoms is an odd little comedy that shouldn’t really work, and yet it does. The film includes some ideas and dialogue which could be viewed as being politically incorrect by 2023 standards, and yet the film’s satirical approach to high school life and victimisation ensures it stands head and shoulders above its peers.
At the heart of the story are PJ and Josie, who want to lose their virginity and also want to elevate themselves from the bottom rung of the social ladder. They formulate a plan to achieve their goal, but clearly it’s not a good one.
The girls deceive their fellow students and manipulate everyone around them. As such, they could be viewed as the villains of this film, and yet they are not.
PJ and Josie exist in a world in which everyone in their lives, from their high school principal through to the football jocks, treat them like second class citizens. Their day-to-day life is less than great, and the only way to move forward is to essentially become as hard faced and self-centred as everyone else.
Does this mean their course of action is correct? No, but that’s what directer Emma Seligman explores over the film’s 90-minute runtime.
The point of this movie, and of PJ and Josie’s story, is to say high school’s a bit rubbish, everyone is so concerned with their own feelings they don’t take into consideration anyone else, and devising stupid plans to sleep with girls isn’t just restricted to teenage boys (the default protagonists usually associated with this genre of comedy).
Is it all a bit questionable and occasionally bonkers? Yes, but that’s the point. Bottoms is a modern teen sex comedy, which highlights the insecurities and problems of high school kids in 2023.
Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri are great in the lead roles as PJ and Josie respectively. Both understand the tone and humour of the movie very well, and are relatable to teen audiences.
Incidentally, Bottoms is rated a ‘15’ certificate in the UK, so it’s aimed at slightly older teens, but a great deal of this rating is to do with the language, as well as the violence. Despite the high school setting, Bottoms features multiple scenes of violence, and a fair bit of blood, and this is mostly due to PJ and Josie’s fight club.
The violent content is played for laughs, and while it is occasionally graphic, it is very much in keeping with the satirical nature of the story. Bottoms purposefully goes to some silly places, and teen audiences should be fine within the context and tone of the film.
All-in-all, Bottoms is a fun comedy. It has something interesting to say and it gets its points across rather well.
It could do with being a bit funnier, and it does miss out on not having any full-on belly laughs, but even when the chuckles drop off, the story keeps things going. There’s a certain likability that permeates the whole picture, and it should certainly prove popular with its target demographic.
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