“A callback to iconic comedies from the early-2000s with a refreshing spin.”

Following the critical success of Shiva Baby (2020), another collaboration between Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott was extremely promising., and with the inclusion of Edebiri, Bottoms was one of the most anticipated films this year. Best friends PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) are losers, or as the film more aptly puts it, “ugly, untalented gays.” In their senior year of high school, they are finally hot and (mostly) developed and now determined to finally hook up with their crushes—two hot cheerleaders, Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) and Brittany (Kaia Gerber)—by starting an all-female fight club.

At the beginning of the school year, PJ and Josie attend the local fair to get a fresh start. After their friend Hazel (Ruby Cruz) sees Josie with her arm in a sling, she jokingly asks if she went to juvie over the summer, and Josie sarcastically agrees. PJ and Josie attempt to talk to Isabel and Brittany, but end up striking out. When they get back to their car, they witness Isabel arguing with her himbo boyfriend Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine), Rockbridge Falls’ beloved quarterback, and PJ pushes Josie to offer her a ride. After accepting Josie’s offer, Isabel hops into the back of her car, but before the three can leave, Jeff stops in front of the car and refuses to move. With Jeff yelling at Isabel to get out of the car, and Isabel and PJ yelling at Josie to drive away, Josie feels pressured and accelerates the car, just barely touching Jeff’s knees with the bumper, causing Jeff to dramatically fall to the ground, feigning injury. The entire football team rushes to his aid and his best friend, Tim (Miles Fowler), while shaking his fist towards the sky, swears to get revenge for the fallen star. 

After the fair, Jeff shows up to school in crutches, causing a rumor to circulate around school that PJ and Josie—fresh out of juvie—beat up Jeff. When threatened with expulsion, the two come up with the excuse that they were just practicing for their self-defense club since the big game against their rival school is coming up, and they need to protect themselves. PJ convinces Josie that they should use this and all the newfound rumors to their advantage, so the two start a club under the supervision of recently divorced Mr. G (Marshawn Lynch), under the guise of female empowerment and solidarity (and a love for David Fincher), in the hopes of getting Isabel and Brittany to have sex with them.

Seligman, Sennott, and Edebiri have been friends since their days at NYU, and this kind of camaraderie—both on and off screen—makes this film all the more special. The chemistry between Sennott and Edebiri brings PJ and Josie’s friendship to life, playing off one another with their deadpan line delivery and perfect comedic timing that makes Seligman and Sennott’s script jump off the page. It’s clear that everyone is having a blast playing their characters, with Liu, Cruz, and Galitzine delivering standout performances. Liu, who has up until now been featured predominantly in dramatic roles, is effortlessly funny as Isabel. Cruz’s portrayal of Hazel contrasts against the two leads in a way that grounds the film, and Galitzine really flexes his acting range in the role of Jeff, a stark contrast to his character Henry in this year’s earlier release Red, White & Royal Blue.

The soundtrack, a collaboration between singer-songwriter Charli XCX and composer Leo Birenberg, is an absolute dream, and includes two perfect needle drops—Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and most notably, Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated”—that perfectly encompasses Bottoms as a callback to iconic comedies from the early 2000s with our two lesbian protagonists providing a refreshing spin. The kind of comedy where the main characters are unabashedly horny and chasing after women is usually reserved for straight white teenage boys, and it’s refreshing to finally get a different spin on it with our two lesbian protagonists. This queer representation isn’t just for show—PJ and Josie are fully formed characters, and quite frankly, they’re total assholes. They’re pathological liars. They’re horrible people. And that’s what makes them so great. This perceived need to have queer characters—especially queer women—be inherently good feels like an attempt to justify their existence within the story. But PJ and Josie are allowed to be imperfect, to not necessarily learn a lesson in the end, and this makes them just like everyone else—flawed, real people. 

The world of Rockbridge Falls is on a different plane of existence where reality must be suspended in favor of embracing absurdity, where teachers kick back and flip through porn magazines after class, where the cheerleaders’ performance at the pep rally is just a wet t-shirt contest. This entire world can best be summed up by the total lack of attention being paid to the student locked in a cage in the back of the classroom. Some of the most outrageous moments happen during the more violent scenes; Seligman is unafraid to really go there, to show these women throwing punches and fighting each other, wearing their black eyes and split lips in the halls as a badge of pride. It pokes fun at the performative feminism shown in some films that comes across as more condescending than anything else. These women kick some serious ass, and they may or may not commit several crimes while doing so. Bottoms is a bloody mess that’s not just uproariously hilarious, but surprisingly empowering.